UND, WICHE Receive Federal Award

Published:
February 14, 2019

UND, WICHE Receive Federal Award to Co-Lead New Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center
Posted on UND's University Letter webpage on August 30, 2018

The UND College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Behavioral Health Program have been selected by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) to coadminister a new Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC).

The selection is accompanied by a five-year funding commitment of $3.8 million. The Mountain Plains (Region 8) encompasses Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah.

UND and WICHE are co-leading this effort, which began Aug. 15, to take advantage of their combined experience in behavioral health workforce development. Their efforts will address training and technical assistance needs of behavioral health treatment providers and administrators in these Mountain Plains states, whose predominance of frontier and rural communitiesincreases their need for assistance in the provision of behavioral health services.

The focus of MH–TTC is to expand access to support for providers, especially those serving persons with serious mental illness or emotional disturbance. The population of focus will be the public mental health workforce (both its leadership and its individual disciplines), encompassing pre-professional, postgraduate and continuing preparation.

Thomasine Heitkamp, professor of graduate nursing at UND, will serve as principal investigator and co-director and Dennis Mohatt, vice president of the Behavioral Health Program at WICHE, will serve as co-director. Mountain Plains MH—TTCdirectors, faculty and staff will be based both at UND (drawing from existing faculty) and at WICHE (which, in addition to Mohatt, will draw from new hires and existing staff). Cumulatively they have an extensive footprint in the Mountain Plains region with a sustained commitment to assisting providers of mental health treatment services in advancing evidence-based practices to better serve those in need of support.

 

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