The Elm

The Veterans Affairs (VA) Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at the VISN 5 MIRECC is offering one position for an allied health fellow from clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work, nursing, or pharmacy.

The application deadline is Dec. 4 for the fellowship beginning in September 2021.

We welcome inquiries from all interested UMB nursing, pharmacy, and social work PhD students. A brief description is below. Full details, contacts, and application information may be found at www.mirecc.va.gov/visn5/research/fellowship.asp.

Program Description

Our program trains fellows to become successful researchers whose work increases access to effective mental health services for all veterans who need them. People living with mental health conditions face stigma, discrimination, poverty, homelessness, lack of access to health care, and health disparities — as well as the challenges of their health problems — that present enormous barriers to recovery. Many do not have a voice in their care.

We are clinician researchers who are committed to addressing this through innovative applied research and resource development. Our active research program addresses some of the most important mental health services research priorities within the VA:

• Evaluating peer-delivered mental health services to support their wide-scale implementation and dissemination
• Determining effective strategies for engaging veterans in mental health services and ensuring that those services are personally meaningful
• Developing interventions that move beyond the medical model of treating symptoms with medication by promoting holistic and self-directed recovery and addressing the intersections of gender, age, being a veteran, and other social identities with mental health and health care
• Expanding whole health knowledge and resources within the VA so that this model is fully realized within mental health treatment programs
• Actively involving veterans who may benefit from specialized mental health services
• Working toward reducing suicide through better identification of and engagement with those at highest risk