UT Tyler gets grant for behavioral health training

TYLER – The University of Texas at Tyler has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to help train local behavioral health interns who work throughout East Texas. According to our news partner KETK, the grant was awarded to the university’s program to train behavioral health interns. Currently, the program is lead by Dr. Stephanie Simmons, an associate professor at the School of Medicine.

Thanks to $1.5 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration, the program will be able to expand from training six interns to 30. The 24 new interns will focus on training child and adolescent psychology while rotating throughout clinics across East Texas.

“This funding will enhance how we can serve the community, making behavioral health care more accessible—especially in rural regions,” UT Tyler School of Medicine dean Dr. Sue Cox said.
“Investments in behavioral health are needed everywhere—and nowhere is that more evident than right here in East Texas.”

“Every county in East Texas is considered to be a Behavioral Healthcare Provider Shortage Area by the Health Resources and Services Administration,” said Simmons. “This funding will
increase behavioral health presence and providers throughout the region. Our interns will be rotating through clinics where patients are seeing their primary care doctors, instead of being
siloed in a behavioral healthcare outpatient clinic. The interns will be embedded where people already receive care—making behavioral health support more accessible, timely and
integrated into everyday health care.”

The interns being trained in the program will then be able to provide their mental health services to patients for free. To learn more, visit the UT Tyler Psychology Internship program online.