Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska

- Career Pathways Overview
- - Behavioral Health Career Pathways
    Behavioral health professionals share what is unique about their profession and how it is different from other behavioral health careers.
  - BHECN App
    The BHECN Behavioral Health Mentorship & Supervision App is a resource for anyone interested in behavioral health careers in Nebraska.
- - Lifelong Learning Fund
    BHECN's Lifelong Learning fund supports educational and career engagement opportunities to help grow our state's behavioral health workforce.
  - Behavioral Health Opportunities Program
    The Behavioral Health Opportunities Program recruits and supports undergraduate and graduate students seeking licensed behavioral health careers in Nebraska.
  - Correctional Sites Internship Program
    With clinical supervision, trainees in this internship program provide direct care to inmates and individuals needing mental health care.
  - Rural and Underserved Trainee Stipend Program
    In BHECN’s Rural and Underserved Trainee Stipend Program, graduate-level student trainees can apply to receive a stipend for their experiences.
- Education and Training Overview
- - Project PEACE
    The Project PEACE Webinar Series is a series of webinars recorded by psychiatry residents on rotation with BHECN.
  - Core Topics
    This accredited continuing education activity is designed for Behavioral Health providers to include psychologists, nurses, therapists, and social workers.
  - DSM-5 TR
    This webinar reviews revisions from the DSM-5 to the DSM-5-TR with speakers Krista Fritson, PsyD and Arden Szepe, PhD, NCC.
  - Heal the Healer
    Heal the Healer is a free webinar series that addresses incivility and bullying in the workplace designed for nurses and interested healthcare professionals.
- - Training Partnerships
    BHECN establishes partnerships to create and disseminate educational materials for the development of the behavioral health workforce.
  - Nebraska Behavioral Health Education Partnership
    BHECN partners with the 19 academic institutions to track the number of graduate-level behavioral health education students graduating and staying in Nebraska.
  - The BHECN Serenity Project
    The BHECN Serenity Project is a series of free online yoga and meditation sessions in partnership with Lotus House of Yoga.
- 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.
- Rural Sites Overview
- BHECN Panhandle
  BHECN Panhandle serves as a rural hub that supports our mission of recruitment and retention of behavioral health professionals across Nebraska.
- BHECN Central
  BHECN Central serves as a satellite location for training and workforce development in the central parts of the state.
- BHECN Northeast
  BHECN Northeast is a satellite location based at Wayne State College that facilitates training and workforce development in Northeast Nebraska.
BHECN Model

— Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska — Career Pathways — Student and Trainee Opportunities

Student and Trainee Opportunities

BHECN has a commitment to increasing the number of students training in the behavioral health fields in all areas of the state. This commitment initially focused on increasing the number of psychiatry residents trained in the state and on identifying barriers to the retention of psychiatrists in the state.

There are two psychiatry residence training programs in Nebraska. One is sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry at Creighton University Medical Center (CUMC) and fully accredited training is offered in General Psychiatry as well as Fellowships in Geriatric and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The second psychiatry residence program sponsored by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska, got its start in 2020.

All psychiatry residents will receive training in rural mental health issues. All residents will experience a month-long rural clinical rotation in a designated community during their second year of training. All residents will also be involved in rural outreach clinics via telehealth facilities. Through this process, all psychiatry residency graduates will have developed an appreciation for rural Nebraska and the behavioral health needs of its citizens.

The behavioral health system must have more professionals than just psychiatrists to meet the needs of citizens. BHECN will work with all behavioral health students including counseling, psychology, nursing, social work, and other graduate behavioral health training programs to increase the number of students trained in the state and the retention of these students in the state.