[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]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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