Grants to Increase the Mental Health Workforce Pipeline Awarded to Six Virginia Universities

Nov 14, 2022

** NEWS RELEASE:
Grants to Increase the Mental Health Workforce Pipeline Awarded to Six Virginia Universities
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Contact:
Laura Osberger
(804) 387-5191
lauraosberger@schev.edu

November 10, 2022

RICHMOND — Today the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), in consultation with the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF), awarded Higher Education Mental Health Workforce Pilot grants to six universities: Christopher Newport, George Mason, James Madison, Longwood, Radford and Virginia Tech.

Each grant award will underwrite the salary and benefits of an onsite Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) candidate for two years. The hosting universities will hire, train and supervise the LCSW/LPC candidates to work at on-campus mental health care facilities until licensed.

The pilot serves the dual purposes of: (1) expanding mental health services to students on an institution’s campus, while simultaneously; (2) increasing the mental health workforce pipeline overall by offering supervised clinical hours for candidates who seek to become LCSWs or LPCs.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly responded to the critical need of students at Virginia’s institutions of higher education for mental health services by appropriating $500,000 annually for the next two years to support the mental health workforce pilot at selected public four-year institutions.

According to a 2021 study by Healthy Minds (https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf) , 40 percent of surveyed postsecondary students nationwide report having a mental health disorder. This demand is compounded in Virginia, where more than 70 percent of the state is designated as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (MHPSA).

“The General Assembly’s creation of the Higher Education Mental Health Workforce Pilot is an important and creative approach to resolving the shortage of licensed mental-health therapists and to meeting the surge of mental health struggles of college students,” said VHCF Director Debbie Oswalt.

“This pilot represents another example of innovation in the Commonwealth to address complex and urgent problems,” said SCHEV Director Peter Blake.

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Media resources including news advisories and releases are available at www.schev.edu/media.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia is the state’s coordinating agency for higher education. With Pathways to Opportunity: The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, SCHEV is dedicated to making Virginia the best state for education by 2030. For more on this statewide strategic plan, visit schev.edu/TheVirginiaPlan (https://schev.edu/index/statewide-strategic-plan/virginia-plan-overview) .

Last Updated on November 14, 2022