News

HRSA Awards Grant to the NYU Silver School of Social Work

The NYU Silver School of Social Work has received a $1.44 million federal grant award from the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). The grant will create a new fellowship award program for second-year students. These Silver School MSW candidates will, under the grant, provide integrated health and behavioral health services to poverty-impacted youth in New York City with serious mental health challenges and a range of physical health, educational, family, and psychosocial needs.

In supporting the New York University Silver School of Social Work Integrated Youth Behavioral Health Project (NYU/-IYBH), the HRSA award provides $300,000 for financial aid for 33 students each year over 3 years, or $900,000 and 99 students in all. The students will receive the opportunity for focused learning in the field and the classroom, working closely with the faculty at the Silver School and with nonprofit social service agencies. Their efforts will take place primarily in disadvantaged communities in the Bronx.

The project is also designed to prepare current agency-based practitioners for health and mental health care practice in the unfolding era of the Affordable Care Act. It will support and strengthen NYU Silver’s curriculum in integrated health and behavioral health practice.

Lynn Videka, dean and a professor of social work, is the principal investigator on the project. Diane Mirabito and Judith Siegel are the lead faculty. Peggy Morton will lead the substantial field education component, and Professor Mary McKay will lead the project evaluation. Faculty members Michael Lindsey, James Jaccard, Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Victoria Stanhope, and Michelle Munson all contributed to the success of the school’s proposal through their courses and leadership in youth behavioral and health risk prevention and integrated health and mental health services.

The NYU-IYBH is a significant undertaking. For students participating in the fellowship program, the NYU-IYBY focused learning opportunity will provide: a specialized academic-field education consisting of three required courses, in addition to other required courses in the MSW curriculum; a specialized field placement with field instructors who are prepared for evidence-based and inter-professional practice with youth and families in school and other community contexts; and specialized seminars that will include students, faculty, and inter-professional agency staff. The impact of the project on student competencies will be closely examined.

Five nonprofit agency partners and MSW field education sites are set to participate at various stages of the project, including FEGS, Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services, the NYU Child Study Center, Project Step-Up, and the Institute for Family Health. The project will create on-site agency training and supervisory opportunities founded on faculty and agency staff expertise. It will also seek to build inter-professional and evidence-based service delivery capacity.

The NYU-IYBH builds upon a previous HRSA-funded effort, a successful collaborative model developed by Silver faculty and partners, with the ultimate goal of establishing an NYU Community-based Behavioral Health Teaching Institute in the future.

— Source: NYU Silver School of Social Work