Boise State’s School of Social Work has received a new federally funded research project, “Training & Education Access Model (TEAM) for Social Work.” The principal investigator for this grant is Roy Rodenhiser, director of the School of Social Work.
The objective of this project is to increase the number of clinically trained Masters of Social Work (MSW) graduates who are committed to working with children, adolescents, and at-risk transitional-age youth in order to fill the high need and demand for services throughout the State of Idaho. At-risk transitional-age youth are teenagers and young adults, from 14-25, who have additional risk factors and needs. They may be transitioning out of foster care or juvenile detention centers. They also may have run away from home, dropped out of school, have substance abuse issues or other mental health issues.
“TEAM for Social Work” provides support for 36 additional field placements across four areas where graduate students in social work will focus on these target populations: Boise, Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, and Twin Falls. While in the field, students will engage with primary care integrated health care teams while working in primary care clinics, hospitals and select non-profit agencies.
“There is a mental health crisis in Idaho,” states Rodenhiser. “There are not enough mental health providers, particularly in rural areas to meet the health needs of Idahoans. Social workers and other human service providers are needed to work in integrated clinics and care facilities serving a multitude of mental health challenges facing today’s youth. Social workers can provide both direct mental health services to clients as well as follow-up case management to insure continuity of care.”
Boise State, offering Idaho’s only public MSW program, has been designated by the State Board of Education to tackle the mission of delivering MSW education in Idaho. This project provides additional resources to accomplish that mission. The project is supported by numerous agencies in Boise and across the state who recognize how additional MSW graduates will help ease Idaho’s mental health crisis.
This project will also explore the implications of videoconference as a form of field supervision for clinical work placements. Videoconferencing will allow faculty to supervise students placed in more rural areas of the state, where the mental health crisis is most dire.
All funding for this project is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training for Professionals and Paraprofessionals program grant #G02HP27927 for a three-year total of $483,417.