User:Jshamwell/APA's Minority Fellowship Program

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) is one of the most successful training programs for ethnic and racial minority researchers and service providers in the history of federally funded training programs.

The APA's MFP was established and first funded in 1974 under the leadership of Dr. Dalmas Taylor. They graduated their first doctoral recipient in 1978. To date, the APA's MFP has supported over 1,400 trainees in psychology and neuroscience at over 100 different institutions, and has seen 900 of them go on to earn their doctoral degrees.

=Purpose= The principal aim of the APA Minority Fellowship Program in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is to identify, select, and support the training of doctoral level ethnic minority students and postdoctoral trainees whose prior experiences and clearly stated career goals suggest they will make significant contributions to the mental health and substance abuse services needs of ethnic and racial minorities. This principal aim is directly related to efforts to reduce health disparities among ethnic minorities in the U.S. by filling a crucial need for mental health service providers. The MFP selects individuals with promise and a commitment to careers that address mental health and substance abuse service needs of ethnic minorities. Thus, the APA's MFP has two target populations at the center of its efforts: the members of ethnic and racial minorities in need of mental health and substance abuse services and ethnic minority doctoral students in psychology.

=History= In May of 1969, a group of influential Black psychiatrists met to address the failings of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and other federal agencies in working effectively to eliminate racism in their programs and within the larger society. Spearheaded by Drs. Chester Pierce and James Comer, of Harvard University and Yale University respectively, the group proposed that the NIMH create both an organizational unit to promote the development of mental health programs for minority groups and an Affirmative Action Plan.

NIMH responded by establishing the Center for Minority Group Mental Health and hired Dr. James Ralph, a Black psychiatrist, as its first director. The Center for Minority Group Mental Health established the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) in five disciplines: psychology, psychiatry, social work, sociology and psychiatric nursing. In 1974, the American Psychological Association received a federal T32 training grant through the Center for Minority Group Mental Health to provide fellowships to ethnic minority students eligible for or attending doctoral programs in psychology.

Dr. Dalmas Taylor, then professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, was appointed as the APA MFP’s first director. At the time of the APA MFP’s founding, only 2% of graduate students in psychology were of color. To rectify this inequality, Dalmas Taylor developed an approach that has become the APA's MFP Project. The approach of the APA MFP Project can be briefly summarized in the six steps below :


 * 1) Developing a large and farreaching network for recruiting talented students, many of whom may not be found in conventional undergraduate contexts
 * 2) Selecting Fellows based on potential to be successful in a PhD training program and to be demonstrably committed to communalities of color
 * 3) Engaging training institutions in the support of APA MFP Fellows both financially through cost-sharing and professionally in their education, training, research, and development
 * 4) Allowing ethnic minority psychologists to serve as role models, visit Fellows’ departments, and interact with them in a variety of venues, including notably the APA Convention
 * 5) Empowering Fellows to expect quality and relevant training and to take action to be sure they got it
 * 6) Actively pursing efforts to initiate social change in graduate training, APA organizational structure, and the opportunities for professional development and advancement of MFP Fellows

=Switch from NIMH to SAMHSA= From 1978-1992, the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) funded the APA's Minority Fellowship Program in Psychology. However, in 1993, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) took over funding for the APA's Minority Fellowship Program in Psychology. SAMHSA continues to fund the APA's Minority Fellowship Program in Psychology into the present.

=NIMH Halts Funding= In 2007, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announced that funding would no longer be provided for the APA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) in Mental Health Research (MHR). NIMH funding for the MHR Training Grant was $875,000 for 30 pre-doctoral fellows in 2005-2006 ($780,000 in 2007 as a result of a reduction in training funds). The APA MFP’s 2007 evaluation showed that 74% of MHR fellows graduated and were employed throughout the range of settings in which research scientists would be expected to work, most (68%) being in colleges or universities.

In 2009, NIMH decided to cease its funding of another successfull APA MFP training program: the Diversity Program in Neuroscience. Established in 1988, the APA MFP's Diversity Program in Neuroscience (DPN) has funded 289 neuroscience Fellows. Far superior to many graduate programs, "almost 90% of the DPN's Fellows have gone on to receive their PhDs," boasted DPN director Joe L. Martinez, PhD in 2009. Despite the program's success, NIMH decided to cut its funding for the program in June of 2010 to transition the management of its T32 grants from associations to universities.

=Present= While the approach pioneered by Dr. Dalmas Taylor has been advanced and refined over the decades since its inception, the MFP Project functions under a very similar framework.

One notable difference between the MFP of 1974 and the MFP of 2010 is that the program no longer solely accepts ethnic minorities. The change in focus can be seen in the MFP’s current mission statement: The American Psychological Association MFP's mission is to increase the knowledge of, and research related to ethnic minority mental health and to improve the quality of mental health and substance abuse services delivered to ethnic minority populations

While ethnic minority (African American, Alaskan Native, American Indian, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) students are especially encouraged to apply, the MFP will award fellowships to any student who demonstrates the ability to improve the quality of mental health and substance abuse services delivered to ethnic minority populations. =Current Programs and Activities=

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) Predoctoral Fellowship
This fellowship is aimed at those pursuing doctoral degrees in clinical, counseling, and school psychology, or other mental health services areas.

Funded by a grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the MFP Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) fellowship supports the training of practitioners or practitioner/researchers in mental health and substance abuse services and prevention. This fellowship program is directed at students in clinical, counseling, and school psychology, or other psychology doctoral students whose training prepares them to provide counseling, therapy, testing, assessments, etc….

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) Postdoctoral Fellowship
This fellowship is aimed at early career doctoral recipients who are interested in developing a career in mental health services research.

Funded by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the MFP Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services postdoctoral fellowship supports the training of early career doctoral recipients who have primary interests in research, delivery of services, or policy related to substance abuse and its relationship to the mental health or the psychological well-being of ethnic minorities.

Psychology Summer Institute (PSI)
This program is a week-long intensive training aimed at advanced doctoral students and early career doctoral recipients. PSI provides mentoring and career development as participants develop projects focusing on ethnic minority issues. PSI provides educational, professional development, and mentoring experiences to advanced doctoral students of psychology and psychologists who are in the early stage of their careers. Participants are guided toward developing a grant proposal, postdoctoral fellowship, dissertation, treatment program, publication, or program evaluation project. All projects must focus on issues affecting ethnic minority communities.

Participants receive one-on-one mentoring on their projects by a consultant. Expert faculty will present seminars on selected topics such as grant writing, publishing, and specific areas of research or service delivery. There will also be opportunities to network with representatives from federal agencies and foundations.

=Current Training Advisory Committee Members=

MHSAS Training Advisory Committee

 * Andrew T. Austin-Dailey, MDiv, MS (MFP Director)
 * Terry S. Gock, Ph.D., M.P.A. (2010 Chair)
 * Jeanne E. Manese, PhD
 * Beth Boyd, PhD
 * Andraé L. Brown, PhD
 * Kermit A. Crawford, PhD
 * Miriam Delphin, PhD
 * Mario Hernandez, PhD
 * Deborah Jones-Saumty, PhD
 * Miriam Martinez, PhD
 * Valerie E. Robinson, MS, LPC
 * La Pearl Logan Winfrey, PhD

=References=

=External links=
 * APA's Minority Fellowship Program Homepage
 * SAMHSA's Minority Fellowship Program Homepage
 * Minority Fellowship Program in Nursing
 * Marriage and Family Therapy Minority Fellowship Program
 * American Sociological Association's Minority Fellowship Program
 * American Psychiatric Association's Minority Fellowship Program
 * Council on Social Work Education's Minority Fellowship Program