TOPPENISH, Wash.- Heritage University is starting a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling (MMHC) program thanks to a Department of Education grant.
Heritage has been awarded a five year $6 million grant from the Department of Education to launch the program that will train students as mental health counselors for schools according to a press release from the University.
The new program is a partnership between Heritage, the Yakama Nation and ESD 105 in Yakima and will recruit students from local high schools into Heritage’s bachelor of psychology program and then into the new MMHC program.
“Our proposed solution is to create a new and innovative partnership that will address the urgent mental health needs that adversely impact the learning and well-being of the diverse students in our community,” said Dr. Amy Nusbaum, chair of the Psychology Department at Heritage.
The program is part of an effort to address the unprecedented mental health crisis that small, rural communities like the Yakama Indian Reservation and the Yakima Valley are facing.
According to a Heritage press release graduates of the program will be able to serve as Licensed Mental Health Counselor-Associates in Washington.
Enrollment for the MMHC program will begin in the spring of 2024, with classes slated to start in the fall of 2024. For more information on the program please contact Amy Nusbaum at nusbauma@heritage.edu.
