MDH Health Professionals Clinical Training Expansion Grant

Embedding Behavioral Health: Expanding Rural Clinical Training and Access to Care 

Principal Investigator: Darcie Davis-Gage

Rural communities across Minnesota continue to face a growing mental health workforce crisis, marked by persistent shortages of licensed behavioral health professionals, long waitlists for care, and limited access to integrated behavioral health services. Windom Hospital and Healthcare, a critical access hospital serving a largely rural population, exemplifies this challenge: despite maintaining a psychiatric nurse practitioner on site, the organization only has a half-time therapist position, significantly limiting mental health service capacity in the region.

The project seeks to expand the reach of the Rural Behavioral Health Clinic and expose trainees to an integrated system in rural Minnesota. We recently partnered with Windom Hospital and Healthcare to establish a clinical training site at their mental health walk in clinic. They currently have a psychiatric nurse practitioner on site, but their therapist resigned last year, and they have not been able to fill the position. This program will help in three ways. First student interns will be able to provide much needed mental health services under the clinical supervision of one of the licensed clinicians from the Rural Behavioral Health Clinic. Second, students will be able to learn and gain experience in integrated behavioral health located within a primary care model. Lastly, the hospital will benefit from having multiple students exposed to their setting and have an opportunity to recruit these students for some of their full-time openings in behavioral health.

Funding for this project is being provided through the MDH FY26 Healthcare Health Professional Clinical Expansion Grant Program.

For more information contact Darcie Davis-Gage at darcie.davisgage@mnsu.edu.