色花堂app

It鈥檚 a two-pronged grant, according to Steve Lawyer, ISU psychology professor and director of clinical training in the ISU psychology department, who is the project director for the grant. First, it is a training grant focused on students in ISU鈥檚 accredited Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. The second major part of the grant is to develop the infrastructure in Southeast Idaho for telehealth and integrated behavioral health to help better treat opioid use disorder.

The name of the grant is the 鈥淚daho Rural Interdisciplinary Health Collaborative鈥� and was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Social Service鈥檚 Health Resource Services Administration. It is the first ever of this type of grant to be awarded in Idaho and one of the few awarded to a western state.

鈥淭here鈥檚 been a big push nationally, and appropriately so, for enhancing services for opioid use disorder,鈥� Lawyer said. 鈥淭he lack of services for opioid use disorder problems is especially acute in rural areas like Idaho, and this grant helps address some of those problems.鈥�

Over the next three years, 21 students in the ISU Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology will receive special training that focuses on evidence-based and trauma-informed interdisciplinary care to prevent and treat opioid use and related substance use disorders.

鈥淥ur goal is to train the next generation of  clinicians to have excellent training in interdisciplinary behavioral health,鈥� Lawyer said. 鈥淭hese students will get more experience working with people in other health fields, like physicians, and they鈥檒l also get experience with using telehealth to provide behavioral health care.鈥�

But better training for clinical psychologists is only part of the equation for better opioid use disorder treatment in Southeast Idaho.

鈥淚n Southeast Idaho, there is a major problem with access to services,鈥� Lawyer said. 鈥淏ecause we are so rural, people don鈥檛 have ready access to behavioral health care. They can鈥檛 make it to the clinics that offer the services that they need. So part of the purpose of the grant is to try to develop an infrastructure where we are increasing access to services and utilization of services.鈥�

In Pocatello, Blackfoot, and Idaho Falls, ISU will be working with four different community partners on the clinical training component of the grant, but the grant also has buy-in from state-level agencies such as the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the Idaho Office for Drug Policy.

The grant鈥檚 co-director, Samuel Peer, ISU assistant professor of psychology, said the grant will use a Community-Based Learning Collaborative 鈥渨hich is a specific model to promote evidenced-based practices.鈥�  

鈥淲e are going to train individuals both throughout and across agencies, not just the clinicians that are providing treatment, but also their supervisors and senior leaders who make policy decisions that can support clinicians and their clients,鈥� Peer said. 鈥淲e are also going to train people that refer and manage cases, so individuals across service roles know how to help each other and collaborate. This will help opioid users better access services, recover with those services, and maintain those gains they鈥檝e received from services.鈥�

It will be a two-way street for clinical psychologists and those with whom they work.

鈥淥ur students will be learning how to work with people from other disciplines because if you are really going to treat opioid use disorder, you have to not only be a good therapist, you will have to have good working relationships with nurses, social workers, probation officers, and physicians,鈥� Lawyer said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e also training those in other disciplines, like pharmacists and physicians, on how they can work with behavioral health services, too.鈥�

Both Lawyer and Peer emphasized the importance of telehealth and online services in providing help to opioid users.

鈥淭he other aspect of this that is really important is the telehealth component, so if a person seeking treatment can鈥檛 make it to a physical site for treatment, available online services can greatly diminish the barriers to care for that person,鈥� Lawyer said.

Ultimately, the grant will increase services to the people who need them.

鈥淲e are going to train far more clinicians, so there will be more people that can be served. Also, we are training those clinicians and related professionals to provide better services, so that those served can recover more 鈥� and more quickly,鈥� Peer said.