WEAVING NATIVE PERSPECTIVES: Integrating Behavioral Health in a Primary Care Setting

WEAVING NATIVE PERSPECTIVES: Integrating Behavioral Health in a Primary Care Setting WEAVING NATIVE PERSPECTIVES: Integrating Behavioral Health in a Primary Care Setting The Office of American Indian Projects (OAIP) within the Arizona State University School of Social Work proposes to develop a project which provides stipend support to American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) and other MSW student scholars in their concentration year of field placements. A total of nine (9) AI/AN and other MSW students will be served each year of the three year project. The need for AI/AN and other trained professionals is critical in both reservation and urban settings especially in the area of behavioral health for children and youth. It is well supported that AI/AN children are overrepresented in suicides, mental health disorders, substance abuse, victimization and gang involvement. The Weaving Native Perspectives project will recruit advance standing and second year students for placement in their direct practice concentration, utilizing field sites which integrate the delivery of behavioral health services in a primary care setting. The field sites will include both rural and urban American Indian programs and agencies, as well as other community-based organizations. The project participants will be trained in the provision of behavioral health services to children, adolescents, and transitional-age youth at risk of developing or who have developed a behavioral health disorder. OAIP will work collaboratively with the Director of Field Education in identifying, developing and supporting new and/or existing field sites which integrate primary care with behavioral health services. AI/AN students and other students interested in developing skills in working with American Indian children at risk of developing behavioral health problems and their families, will be recruited to the project and those students will commit to pursuing a behavioral health practice. One year stipends will be available to those students making the commitment and participating in the identified field sites. OAIP in collaboration with the Director of Field Education as well as the OAIP Advisory Committee will solicit training needs from the field sites, including needs identified by the primary care professionals, and based on the identified needs will develop a training curriculum. This curriculum will be delivered to the field sites using community professionals as trainers with participation by the MSW students and other inter-professional staff of behavioral health and the primary care setting. The inter-professional training will include culturally responsive skill development impacting the MSW students and professionals in behavioral health and primary care. The project will conduct an ongoing evaluation of the performance outcomes which include number of stipends, number of students trained, number of student graduates, number students employed in behavioral health, number of inter-professionals trained and the impacts of the trainings provided. Most data will be collected from the collaboration between the OAIP and the ASU School of Social Works Field Education Office, while data regarding the curriculum trainings and the post graduate employment will be gathered by the project. Surveys of the training participants will be used to supply data regarding the impacts of the training. Data regarding the post-graduation employment will be supplied by the students as part of the agreement signed in the student commitment letter. The project will use a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) technique to monitor the projects progress and challenges, and to inform the project of any need for change or revisions.