[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 8, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Page 12781]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-5674]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Minority Fellowship Program (MFP)

AGENCY: Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), HHS.

ACTION: Notice of planned award for a competing renewal clinical 
training grant for the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) to the 
American Psychiatric Association.

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SUMMARY: The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), within SAMHSA, 
plans to award a competing renewal MFP grant to the American 
Psychiatric Association for the clinical training of psychiatry 
trainees who are ethnic minorities for entry into service careers in 
mental and addictive health areas. The project period for the competing 
renewal grant is anticipated to be 3 years. The first year will be 
funded with approximately $221,000. This is not a general request for 
applications. The competitive renewal clinical training grant will only 
be made to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) based on the 
receipt of satisfactory application that is recommended for approval by 
an Initial Review Group and the CMHS National Advisory Council.

AUTHORITY: The award will be made under the authority of section 303 of 
the Public Health Service (PHS) Act. The authority to administer this 
program has been delegated to the Director, CMHS. The Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program is 93.244.

BACKGROUND: CMHS has the responsibility for mental health workforce 
development, including the clinical training of mental health 
professionals concerned with the treatment of underserved priority 
populations including: Seriously mentally ill adults; seriously 
emotionally disturbed children; and elderly, ethnic minorities and 
rural populations with mental and addictive disorders. CMHS also has 
the responsibility for training ethnic minorities to become mental 
health professionals, which is a very significant task in light of the 
gap between the growing ethnic minority populations requiring mental 
and addictive health services (approaching 25% of the total population) 
and the much smaller number of ethnic minority mental health 
professionals (less than 10% of the total).
    Over the past several decades, the Federal mental health clinical 
training program at CMHS (and previously at NIMH) has addressed this 
gap primarily by attempting to increase the numbers of ethnic minority 
professionals. Ethnic minority professionals understand the customs and 
language of their own particular ethnic group and, therefore, are more 
likely to render high-quality mental health services to mentally ill 
minorities.
    The CMHS MFP is designed to facilitate the entry of minority 
students into mental health careers. The long-term goal is to increase 
the number of professionals trained at the doctoral level to teach and 
provide mental health services, especially to ethnic minority groups.
    The MFP was started at NIMH in the 1970s. This program for clinical 
training provides grants to each of the four core mental health 
professional organizations: the American Nurses Association, the 
American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric 
Association, and the Council on Social Work Education. These four MFP 
grantees, in turn, conduct national competitions to make individual 
graduate fellowship awards to minority students throughout the country. 
Each of the four professional organizations has unique access to those 
students entering its profession. Each has recruited the best students, 
assured that all program requirements were satisfied, and monitored the 
progress of fellows during and after the fellowship period. In short, 
there has been no reason to change the program structure or the 
grantees administering the four-discipline program; thus, the mechanism 
of a peer-reviewed competing renewal clinical training grant has been 
appropriate.
    Therefore, because the American Psychiatric Association's MFP grant 
support will end in FY 1995, the CMHS is providing additional support 
for up to three years via a competing renewal grant award. The American 
Nurses Association, the American Psychological Association and the 
Council on Social Work Education have ongoing CMHS MFP grant support.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Questions concerning the CMHS MFP may be 
directed to Paul Wohlford, Ph.D., Human Resources Planning and 
Development Branch, CMHS, Room 15C-18, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, 
Maryland 20857, telephone (301) 443-3503.

    Dated: March 2, 1995.
Richard Kopanda,
Acting Executive Officer SAMHSA.
[FR Doc. 95-5674 Filed 3-7-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P