The Central Valley will generate new psychologists after receiving a grant to produce more therapists.

Alliant International University announced a $578,000 grant toward The California School of Professional Psychology Clinical Psychology PsyD program in Fresno. 

The grant was given by the state Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) and will go toward training students and faculty to provide mental health services.

Program Director Dr. Ya-Shu Liang said the grant is unique because unlike grants that go directly to federally qualified health care centers, this grant will go directly to training psychology students. The students will specifically be trained in integrated behavioral health — a health care model involving multiple medical professionals to assess and treat patients. 

Physicians typically do a screening and if they notice that patients are showing signs of depression or anxiety, the psychologist might be called into the room to further evaluate the patient. 

“A lot of individuals would not even call a psychologist, but they would come to see a physician and complain about different symptoms,” she said. 

The psychologists would be trained in those medical settings so they can intervene where people most commonly report mental illness. 

Liang hopes to eventually establish a Central California Integrated Behavioral Health Project, a hub to promote the idea of integrated behavioral health. Part of the grant money will go toward organizing this endeavor. 

Liang will partner with Valley Health Team, a federally qualified health care center, and send nine students to Valley Health Team over the next three years. The grant will allow them to give students stipends rather than doing work for free. 

The hope is that these students who serve rural communities will keep serving the same populations after being trained in the practicum. 

“A lot of people in rural communities — sometimes they don’t have insurance, so in those federally qualified medical centers, they don’t turn anybody away. We are serving a community that’s normally not served,” Liang said. 

Traditionally it’s been difficult to attract psychologists to the Central Valley.

“I think sometimes people don’t know how to serve these communities and that’s why this grant is actually very important,” she said. 

More than 50% of the grant needs to go to the students directly, including reimbursement for travel. 

Over the course of the three-year program, Liang said another goal is for students to be trained in substance and opioid use disorder. Currently, students are not required to take courses in substance use disorder. The grant will allow faculty to prepare modules for these types of courses.

Alliant International University is American Psychological Association-accredited and is the only accredited training program in the Central Valley between Bakersfield and Sacramento.

“We always joke around, like we are the best kept secret,” Liang said. 

“It’s very meaningful work,” she added.