MA non-profits get grants; UVM helps rural schools; Bryant University’s psychology research center; ME ups standards
MA non-profits receive grants for youth mental health
Youth and adolescents across the country often suffer and struggle mentally in silence.
Health New England, a non-profit Massachusetts-based health insurance company, has decided to help its community by allocating more than $80,000 to aid youth mental health and wellness in Western Massachusetts.
The insurance company’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging grant was inspired after a Springfield Public Schools’ Youth Health Survey revealed that nearly four in 10 students surveyed at the eighth grade level have felt hopeless for weeks.
“The results of the many studies that point to the worsening of overall health and well-being of our youth are extremely concerning,” said Richard Swift, president and CEO of Health New England.
Swift added, “Healthy childhood and adolescent years play such an important role later in life, and the stressors on our youth are at crisis levels. It is our hope that these grants help accelerate the programs that can make a difference for those who need them most.”
The grant will zone in on organizations that are committed to helping local youth navigate social, personal, educational, environmental, and nonmedical causes. Health New England will also specially target organizations located in nearby areas including Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties.
UVM introduces mental health workers in rural schools
School-based mental health services make it that much easier for students to receive the care they need, especially in rural areas.
The University of Vermont is taking a huge step to provide adequate counseling services through a program called the Catamount Counseling Collaborative. The program will allow UVM to train and place more than 52 mental health counselors across various rural schools in Vermont.
The program will be funded with the help of a $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to promote retaining mental health professionals in high areas of need.
The project is not only providing a cost-efficient and destigmatized way for youth living in rural areas to seek help, but also gives an opportunity to fully prepare students to serve in rural communities.
UVM and the Department of Education will work closely to recruit and ensure rural graduate students have an opportunity to serve their own communities while also having affordable residency.
“It’s really designed to be a full systemic response to a major issue,” said Anna Elliott, Ph.D., associate professor of counseling and principal investigator of the grant. “We also have pieces of the program in place that help support students to remain in rural placements after they graduate.”
Bryant University to build psychology research center
Bryant University is offering its students a real-world clinical space to practice with a brand-new Psychology Research Center.
With more than 3,440 square feet of space, the new center will have wellness areas and a skills lab all located on the third floor of the same building as the Physician Assistant Studies wing. This building expansion will serve as an opportunity for the new Psy.D. program students as well as psychology undergraduate and physician assistant program students to all collaborate and learn together.
“Students are going to have access to clinical spaces that simulate the real world while educators provide feedback in real time,” said Christina Tortolani, Ph.D., associate professor and program director of Bryant’s Psy.D. program.
Construction of the new center will coincide with the beginning of Bryant’s new doctoral clinical psychology program commencing at the start of the 2025 academic school year.
The center will be funded as a part of U.S. Senator Jack Reed’s efforts to expand Bryant University’s Health and Behavioral Sciences department and adequately prepare mental health professionals to enter the workforce.
The $1.5 million federal funding will also help add more teaching, observation, and counseling labs, a child development center, as well as laboratory prep areas, chemical storage, and waste rooms.
ME to increase staffing requirements at residential care facilities
Mental health facilities around the nation are facing the crunch of a shortage of mental health workers.
Maine’s health department is on the frontlines of change, proposing increased staffing requirements at all assisted living and residential care facilities to adequately meet patients’ needs and address gaps in care.
The major staffing changes follow an 18-month-long investigation of the state’s largest residential care facilities. The investigation found a handful of facilities in violation of resident rights, including abuse and neglect, cases of hundreds of residents wandering away from facilities, and medication and treatment violations.
“Current regulations for assisted housing have not kept pace with the increasing needs of residents,” said Brenda Gallant, Maine’s long-term care ombudsman. “This is an opportunity to improve the quality of care for residents that should not be missed.”
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services is required to increase staffing numbers at resident care facilities, including doubling staff overnight.
The new regulations would call for at least one direct care worker for eight residents during the day and evening, and at least one worker to 15 residents overnight. Facilities with 10 or fewer beds will be required to always have at least one responsible adult on duty.
According to The Maine Monitor, the rules would be especially strict for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia patients who are especially prone to wandering and, as a result, high risk.