Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska

- Programs and Training Overview
- - Lifelong Learning Fund
    BHECN's Lifelong Learning fund supports educational and career engagement opportunities to help grow our state's behavioral health workforce.
  - Graduate Trainee Stipend Program
    The Graduate Trainee Stipend Program financially supports master's-level students during select advanced practicum or internship experiences.
  - Mentoring Program
    BHECN's mentorship program provides guidance and support to undergraduate and graduate-level students seeking licensed behavioral health careers in Nebraska.
  - BHECN Scholars
    The BHECN Scholars program supports undergraduate seniors who plan to pursue master’s degrees in Nebraska-based behavioral health programs.
- - Core Topics
    This accredited continuing education activity is designed for Behavioral Health providers to include psychologists, nurses, therapists, and social workers.
  - Project PEACE
    The Project PEACE Webinar Series is a series of webinars recorded by psychiatry residents on rotation with BHECN.
  - Telehealth Training
    Following the COVID-19 pandemic, day-to-day use of telehealth allows people to connect safely and effectively to mental health services no matter where they are located.
- Partnerships Overview
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Education Partnership (NEBHEP)
  BHECN partners with the 19 academic institutions to track the number of graduate-level behavioral health education students graduating and staying in Nebraska.
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Training Partnership
  BHECN establishes partnerships to create and disseminate educational materials for the development of the behavioral health workforce.
- Advisory Groups
  BHECN’s advisory groups provide input that shapes our work and help us keep up with the latest challenges and issues facing Nebraska’s behavioral health workforce.
- Research, Data & Policy Overview
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Workforce Dashboard
  The dashboard helps policy makers, employers, and behavioral health care stakeholders understand the state of the behavioral health workforce.
- Legislative Reports
  BHECN's biennial legislative reports examine the characteristics of actively practicing behavioral health providers in Nebraska.
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Policy Forum
  This forum discussed how investments in BHECN are being used to recruit, train, and retain behavioral health and rural healthcare providers across Nebraska.
- ARPA
  Access information related BHECN’s allocation of $25.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to Nebraska behavioral health providers.
- BHECN's Published Research
  See a listing of BHECN's published research.
- BHECN Sites Overview
- BHECN Panhandle
  Our BHECN Panhandle site supports our mission of recruitment and retention of behavioral health professionals in Western Nebraska.
- BHECN Central
  BHECN Central is a remote site for training and workforce development at the University of Nebraska Kearney that serves the central part of the state.
- BHECN Northeast
  BHECN Northeast is a remote site based at Wayne State College that facilitates training and workforce development in Northeast Nebraska.
- BHECN East
  BHECN East is located at the UNO Grace Abbott School of Social Work and focuses primarily on the behavioral health workforce needs of the Omaha area.
- BHECN Southwest
  BHECN Southwest is a remote site based in North Platte that facilitates training and workforce development in Southwest Nebraska.
BHECN Model

— Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska — The BHECN Model

The BHECN Model

The BHECN Model is a comprehensive behavioral health workforce development model that consists of the following components:

Career Awareness: Inform students about behavioral health careers.
Career Preparation: Provide support and guidance to students interested in behavioral health careers.
Training Experiences: Financial support of undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate behavioral health trainees.
Professional Support: Free continuing education for licensed behavioral health providers.
Workforce Research: Tracking the behavioral health workforce and reporting on trends.
Outreach: Engagement with academic, community and workforce leaders across the state.

Innovative Recruitment Strategies for Behavioral Health Careers

This webinar discusses recruitment strategies that are essential to enhance behavioral health pathways for a successful career while addressing the shortage of this specialty in rural communities.

Retaining Behavioral Health Professionals

Explore a multifaceted outreach program for professionals derived by BHECN to illustrate the dimensional efforts from exemplary behavioral health professionals in the state.

Using Data to Support the Behavioral Health Workforce

Hear about the trends in the behavioral health workforce and analyze new data endeavors to better understand timely challenges facing the field.

How State Policies Support the Behavioral Health Workforce

This webinar will describe how to leverage policy solutions to recruit, train, and retain the behavioral health workforce, as exemplified by the creation of BHECN in the Nebraska state legislature in 2009.

Unique Considerations for Rural Behavioral Health Workforce Development

Learn how to overcome the unique challenges of rural practice and how to address these obstacles utilizing satellite locations based on BHECN's programming within rural Nebraska.

A guiding light for other states

Read how BHECN serves as a model for other states looking to address their behavioral health workforce challenges.

A photo of Sara Hunt, PhD, (center) Assistant Dean of Behavioral Health Sciences at the Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, BHECN’s Erin Schneider, EdD, (Right) and Marley Doyle, MD, (left).