HRSA GPE/OWEP Grants Training Opportunities

In addition to providing integrated care for Substance Use disorders and Opioid Use Disorders, important components of both the GPE and OWEP programs include the development of tele-behavioral health skills and an emphasis on serving underserved populations.

Additional objectives include the following:

• The 20 WJC Advanced Practicum students chosen receive an annual stipend of $25,000 for a one-year 20-24 hour practicum placement.
  • Practicum training sites include:
    1. Mass General Brigham: Salem Hospital
    2. Community HealthLink in Worcester and Leominster
    3. East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
    4. Lynn Community Health Center
    5. South End Community Health Center
    6. Stanley Street Treatment and Recovery
    7. Harbor Health Services
• Students receive specialized substance use training, which includes a rich didactic training program comprising the following:
  • A week-long Summer Institute for trainees
  • Weekly specialized seminars
  • Quarterly in-service training opportunities
  • Access to free continuing education conferences
  • Peer consultation as well as individualized career planning opportunities
• Opportunities for career counseling in order to train and retain a workforce specializing in working with populations diagnosed with substance use.

• Applicants must be advanced practicum students enrolled in William James College's doctoral program, and must be entering into their 3rd or 4th practicum year.
• Applicants should have an interest in working with populations diagnosed with Opioid Use Disorders as well as other substance use disorders.
• All applicants need to have received their en route master's degrees by the end of the summer term (summer of 2022) that precedes the beginning of this advanced practicum placement.
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens or current green card holders.

The criteria used to evaluate applications are as follows:

1. Motivation to serve the underserved,
2. Interest in providing OUD and other SUD treatment services,
3. High achievement in academic and field settings,
4. Demonstrated cultural responsiveness, and
5. Relevant language proficiency.

Decisions will be made jointly by field site training directors and a committee of WJC faculty.

Application to this HRSA Advanced Integrated Care Practicum counts as one of the seven permitted Advanced Practicum applications; applicants to this grant program may apply to up to 6 additional Advanced Practicum sites. Note that those who apply to the Consortium may also apply to this program, being mindful that Consortium matches are binding. Please note that if you are placed at one of these Advanced Practicum grant slots (not Consortium) at Lynn Community Health Center or North Shore Medical Center, these are not APA-Accredited internship level slots.

Applicants will be required to complete the following application steps:

1. Submit a HRSA Advanced Integrated Care Practicum application. The Qualtrics form, which includes three brief essays, is available here. Please also submit a current CV, a transcript, and three letters of recommendation. As part of your application, you will be asked to rank program sites as 1 (higher preference), 2 (moderate preference), or 3 (lower preference). You will assign a number (1, 2, or 3) to each of the seven sites. Please note that we will consider your preference but we will not be bound by it; you are applying to the program and not to an individual site.
2. WJC faculty will screen applications and assign those who successfully pass screening to individual sites for interview. The number of sites where an applicant interviews and the number of interviewees per site will be determined by the number of applications received.
3. Applicants interview at the sites assigned. These are termed Phase 1 interviews. Following the interviews, both the sites and the applicants rank order their preferences for placement and submit their choices to WJC faculty. Students rank only those sites at which they have interviewed. Once ranked, these choices are binding. Students may choose not to rank a site at which they do not wish to train.
4. WJC faculty make placement matches and successful applicants will indicate their acceptance of a placement. All matches are binding. Unfilled slots will enter a quick Phase 2 for interviews.
5. Phase 2 interviews proceed and both the sites and the applicants rank order their preferences for placement. Once ranked, these choices are binding. Students may choose not to rank a site at which they do not wish to train.