School of Social Work Wins $1.8 Million to Improve Access to Behavioral Health
The UNC Charlotte School of Social Work has received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand integrated care practices across the Charlotte region.
Awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a sub-agency of HHS, the grant supports improved access to behavioral health services through high levels of collaboration between social work, nursing, medicine, and other health care providers.
To achieve this, the School of Social work will use the grant funding to launch the Charlotte Regional Integrated Behavioral Health Scholars (CRIBHS) program. For the next four years, the program will provide stipends to 28 Master of Social Work students enrolled in their advanced year of field practicum. The CRIBHS program will also host a regional conference on integrated and behavioral health care, provide training to social work practicum instructors, and increase collaboration between the UNC Charlotte Schools of Social Work and Nursing.
Dr. Shanti Kulkarni and Dr. Schnavia Smith Hatcher will lead efforts to train students and practitioners in integrated care practices.
Experts say the issue is that most health care professionals are trained in disciplinary “silos,” with little attention to or understanding of the roles of other health disciplines. According to Kulkarni, CRIBHS is “a multi-leveled intervention that will increase capacity to provide integrated health care by training future social workers and nurses, supporting field sites, and disseminating best practices.”
UNC Charlotte began offering a Bachelor’s in Social Work in 1989; since then, the university’s academic offerings in the area have increasingly gained national recognition. The MSW program is currently the highest ranking in the U.S. without an affiliated PhD program.
The CRIBHS program grant comes on the heels of a separate 4-year, $2 million HRSA grant. The latter grant provides full academic scholarships for graduate students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds who are preparing for careers in behavioral health care.