Grant Received to Provide Mental Health Resources to Rural Communities

The partnership between the University of Montana (UM) and Montana State University (MSU) that provides mental health resources to rural communities was selected to receive a $4.16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue their work.

The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant will fund the Rural Mental Health Preparation-Practice-Pathway Partnership (RMHP4). RMHP4 is the second iteration of it's kind, the first being the RMHP3, which was implemented in October of 2021.

Faculty members from the UM and MSU counseling departments partnered through the RMHP3 and the RMHP4 grants to prepare their counseling graduate students for the unique challenges and opportunities of being rural mental health professionals.

The RMHP4 is a cohort model, which will be funded for five years, that, “prepares graduate counseling students to participate and serve as counselors in rural communities. The graduate students are provided with preparation, a professional learning environment, and supervision to create sustainable and supportive mental health services in rural Montana.” (MSU Center for Research in Rural Education, www.montana.edu).

The RMHP4 has four principal investigators; Dr. Kirsten Murray of UM, and Drs. Anna Elliott, Rebecca Koltz, and Jayne Downey of MSU. Murray says they hope to work on establishing more community partnerships and continue supporting and training counseling students to work in rural Montana.

“I am thrilled. Children and families are receiving mental health services in rural Montana. Our students are receiving training on how to address the unique needs of rural populations, and we get to continue sustaining the workforce of school counselors and clinical mental health counselors in rural Montana,” said Murray.