[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 78 (Friday, April 23, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20009-20010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-10141]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Minority Fellowship Program
AGENCY: Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Center for Substance
Abuse Prevention (CSAP), and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
(CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), DHHS.
ACTION: Notice of planned award for renewal of clinical training grants
under the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) to the American Nurses
Association (ANA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the
Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
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SUMMARY: SAMHSA plans to award renewal MFP grants to the ANA, APA, and
CSWE to help facilitate the entry of ethnic minority students into
mental health and/or substance abuse careers and increase the number of
nurses, psychiatrists, and social workers trained to teach, administer,
and provide direct mental health and substance abuse services to ethnic
minority groups. The project period is anticipated to be 3 years. The
first year will be funded for up to $400,000 for each award.
This is not a general request for applications. The renewal
clinical training grants will only be made to the ANA, APA, and the
CSWE based on the receipt of satisfactory applications that are
considered to have sufficient merit by an Initial Review Group and the
National Advisory Council.
Authority/Justification
The awards will made under the authority of Section 303 of the
Public Health Service Act (PHS). The authority to administer this
program has been delegated to the Director, CMHS. The Catalog of
Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number for this program is 93.244.
Background
Section 303 of the Public Health Service Act assigns to the
Secretary, acting through the SAMHSA, certain responsibility for the
clinical training of mental health professionals. SAMHSA is concerned
with the treatment of underserved priority populations; i.e., adults
with serious mental illness; children with serious emotional
disturbance; elderly, ethnic minority and/or rural populations with
mental and substance abuse disorders. SAMHSA also considers the lack of
suitably trained professionals to be a major cause of the lack of
access for ethnic minority communities to appropriate mental health and
substance abuse services. Accordingly, SAMHSA has the responsibility
for providing support to facilitate the entry of ethnic minority
students into mental health careers and increase the number of
professionals trained at the doctoral-level to teach, administer, and
provide direct mental health and substance abuse services to ethnic
minority communities.
Over the past several decades, the Federal mental health clinical
training program at SAMHSA (and previously at the National Institute of
Mental Health [NIMH]) has addressed this gap primarily by attempting to
increase the numbers of professionals who wish to dedicate themselves
to serving ethnic minority populations with mental and addictive
disorders.
Renewal applications may be submitted only by the ANA, APA, and
CSWE. These professional organizations have unique access to those
students entering their respective profession. The fields of nursing,
psychiatry, and social work have been nationally recognized for decades
as part of the four core behavioral health disciplines included in the
MFP (along with psychology). Nursing, psychiatry, and social work
provide part of an essential core of services for individuals with
serious mental illness and also less severe mental disorders. The ANA
and APA are the largest national professional organizations in the
country for nursing and psychiatry, respectively. The ANA and APA and
their affiliates have activities in all major areas of national
policies affecting nursing and psychiatry as professions, including
education and training. In the field of social work, the CSWE is the
leading national organization which is focused just on the education
and training of social workers. All three organizations, the ANA, APA,
and CSWE, along with their affiliates, have direct involvement in
curriculum development, school accreditation, and pre-/post-doctoral
training. The ANA, APA, and CSWE have had decades of experience in
working directly with university training programs. Because of the
above unique characteristics and long experience, the ANA, APA, and
CSWE were chosen more than 20 years ago as the exclusive
representatives for the field of nursing, psychiatry, and social work.
During that time, the ANA, APA, and CSWE have administered their MFP
programs exceptionally well. In addition, the ANA, APA, and CSWE have
recruited excellent students, assured that all program requirements
were satisfied, and effectively monitored the progress of fellows
during and after the fellowship period. These MFP grantees continue in
their unique position to represent these core mental health and
substance abuse disciplines exceptionally well, and eligibility has
been restricted to the ANA, APA, and CSWE, accordingly.
Therefore, because the APA's, ANA's and CSWE's grant support will
end in FY 1999, SAMHSA is providing additional support for up to 3
years via renewal grant awards.
[[Page 20010]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concerning the MFP may be
directed to Mr. James Blair, Division of State and Community Systems
Development, CMHS/SAMHSA, Room 15C-26, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville,
Maryland 20857, telephone (301) 443-5850.
Dated: April 18, 1999.
Richard Kopanda,
Executive Officer, SAMHSA.
[FR Doc. 99-10141 Filed 4-22-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P
