LANSING, Michigan (WILX) — The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will help Michigan State University College of Nursing with a $1.6 million grant. This will help train mental health-prepared nurses to serve underserved areas of the state.

A five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health of approximately $1.3 million will focus on increasing the number of nurses and physicians from Michigan’s underrepresented communities who are trained in substance abuse disorders through industry-leading research and clinical activities.

“It’s reassuring to see both state and federal leaders recognizing the importance of healthcare providers trained in mental health,” said Dr. Leigh Small, Interim Dean of the MSU College of Nursing. “These are investments in our healthcare system that will result in positive patient outcomes in our state, especially in underrepresented areas.”

The $1.6 million grant, from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), will be applied to the MSU College of Nursing’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program (PMHNP) and is for recruitment and retention. to increase PMHNPs in the state of Michigan.

According to Dr. Dawn Goldstein, director of the PMHNP program, who is also the principal investigator of the MDHHS grant, will help fund the recruitment efforts of registered nurses (RNs) or existing advanced RNs interested in applying for the PMHNP program. at either the master’s, doctoral or postgraduate certificate level.

Newly recruited students who receive stipends must commit to meeting the critical mental health and substance use disorders in Michigan’s medically disadvantaged populations.

The program will focus on three main areas:

1. Recruit members of underrepresented groups using multiple strategies and existing Michigan State University initiatives to engage in supervised research

2. Refinement and Delivery of an Interprofessional, Evidence-Based, and Stigma-Reducing Addiction Curriculum for Students

3. Recruit a subset of students engaged in training to participate in interprofessional research collaborations aimed at launching a research career

Dawn Goldstein, PMHNP program director, who is also the principal investigator on the MDHHS grant, said, “Mental health and substance use disorders (SUD) are increasingly common in the state,” Goldstein said. “This effort will foster a pipeline of advanced practice-registered nurses and physician-physician scientists from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds who will be poised to become leaders in the fields of SUD and addiction medicine.”

Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and get the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.

Copyright 2022 WILX. All rights reserved.