My email on April 16th about the HRSA announcement regarding GPE was incorrect. The GPE Program is funded through 2013, so there is not an upcoming announcement.
This is a new program and here is information that has been circulating about it. The formal announcement has still not been released by HRSA but it should be very soon with a very quick turnaround as funds must be dispersed this year.
Sorry for the confusion. Debbie DiGilio
March 5, 2012
Urgent Funding Alert to the Psychology Education and Training Community -- $10 million in new internship program expected soon
We want to alert you and the other members of the psychology education and training community to a new source of federal grant funding that is expected to be announced very soon to help in your efforts to expand capacity. It is our hope that you will use this information to begin preparing to write a grant proposal when the announcement is issued by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) sometime around the beginning of April. Once announced, the program’s submission window is likely to be very compressed --perhaps only 30 to 45 days.
HRSA plans to use approximately $10 million in already appropriated Fiscal Year 2012 funds to initiate a new program authorized in Sec. 756 of the recent healthcare reform law. (A copy of Sec. 756 is attached.) While very similar to the Graduate Psychology Education program in many respects, this program is completely new and will be funded from separate appropriations.
The funding announcement is currently being drafted in the agency but we expect it to be called the Mental and Behavioral Health Education and Training Grant program. Its aim is to help close the gap in access to mental and behavioral health care services by increasing the number of adequately prepared mental and behavioral health providers. All grants will be peer-reviewed and awarded before the end of the current fiscal year, September 30, 2012. Review scoring will be used as the basis for rankings and funding decisions by HRSA staff. HRSA currently plans to devote at least another $5 million to the new program next year. In addition to psychology, social work programs will likely be eligible. It is not clear yet if the grants will be funded on a multi-year basis.
The focus of this effort will likely be on expanding training in accredited internship programs. Currently there are at least 470 such psychology programs in the nation. While, the final HRSA program may be slightly different than what is described in law, the following language from Sec. 756 is offered as a guide to your initial thinking about this opportunity:
“In selecting the grant recipients in graduate
psychology under subsection (a)(2), the Secretary
shall give priority to institutions in which training
focuses on the needs of vulnerable groups such as older
adults and children, individuals with mental health
or substance-related disorders, victims of abuse or
trauma and of combat stress disorders such as
posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries,
homeless individuals, chronically ill persons,
and their families.”
Because of the pent up demand for GPE grants in the past, and the fact that we have a community that has been aware of the program for over 10 years now, we anticipate much interest in this new program. We expect that many of our current and former GPE grant recipients will be very competitive, and we strongly encourage other accredited internships to consider making an application.
Keep in mind that HRSA gives preference to: targeting underserved populations; focusing on rural and urban communities and supporting disadvantaged students.
We will be looking out for the new announcement as soon as it is released and will send it out to the field. We also are contemplating holding a webinar or conference call soon after it is released to help foster discussion, answer questions and hopefully have a HRSA staff member on the call to answer technical questions on the aims and process.
Deborah A. DiGilio| Director, APA Office on Aging Public Interest Directorate email: ddigilio@apa.org http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/index.aspx
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