University of Montana Secures Federal Grant for Rural Mental Health Training

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The University of Montana landed a $1.2 million federal grant to tackle mental health problems in rural Montana. The Health Resources and Services Administration handed out the three-year funding through its Rural Communities Opioid Response Program–Pathways initiative, which trains high school and college students as community health workers in areas that don't have enough help.

Montana has a bad youth mental health situation. Young people kill themselves at nearly three times the national rate. Last year, one in four high school students said they thought about suicide, and one in seven tried. The state has 46 counties that count as frontier, and 51 have been labeled Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas because they only meet 32.9% of what people need for behavioral health.

UM's Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development runs the training in Livingston, Helena and Kalispell. Dave Kuntz handles strategic communications at UM and said these towns need people who work in behavioral health, especially ones who can deal with kids going through tough times. Local schools don't have the cash or people to manage this stuff on their own, so community health workers who get trained can jump in where the holes are.

The program also emphasizes data security protocols, which matter when dealing with confidential youth records and sensitive mental health information. Rural clinics that participate in the initiative must protect patient data against breaches, a challenge that has pushed various industries to adopt stronger verification systems.

Similarly, the online gambling sector has moved toward biometric authentication; Inclave Casinos, for instance, uses fingerprint and facial recognition to verify player identities and secures financial transactions through encryption. Healthcare facilities in Montana's rural areas now implement comparable authentication methods to safeguard behavioral health records and maintain compliance with federal privacy standards.

Rural Spots Don't Have Enough Providers

Rural counties carry 60% fewer psychologists per person compared to cities, so kids who need someone to talk to can't find anybody. Montana got picked as one of 12 places in the whole country for this money. Kate Chapin runs UM's Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development and said high school kids can learn to become community health workers, which fixes a staffing mess and puts young people in spots where they can actually do something for their own towns.

UM got three years to figure out the training and team up with rural schools and clinics around Montana. Students sit in classes but also get their hands dirty in real situations. Partners from all over the state back this thing up, and that group includes high school job coordinators, community colleges, Reach Higher Montana, the Montana Primary Care Association and Montana Urban Indian Health Consortium.

New Jobs That Keep People Home

This program sets up ways for people who finish training to stick around instead of taking off for bigger cities where work is easier to find. Students pick up crisis intervention skills, figure out community outreach and learn how to get things done without much to work with. Classes cover the nuts and bolts but also dig into personal health, fixing problems and bouncing back when things go sideways.

People who graduate already have experience when they start looking for work. Community health workers have proven effective in rural settings, with programs documenting improved patient outcomes and positive return on investment for healthcare systems. Matt Fete works as dean at UM's College of Health and said training programs run by younger people, paired with schools and industry folks across the state, build a steady flow of workers who already live in these places.

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