APA Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Fellowship

The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Fellowship is a federally funded program to support doctoral training in mental health and substance abuse services to promote culturally competent mental health and substance abuse services provided to communities of color, to increase the number of psychologists from communities of color delivering mental health and substance abuse services to underserved populations and to increase the general knowledge and research of issues related to mental health and substance abuse treatment in communities of color.

The APA Minority Fellowship Program's (MFP) mission is to increase the knowledge of, and research related to the mental health of people in communities of color and to improve the quality of mental health and substance abuse services delivered to communities of color. We do this by providing financial support, professional development activities, and professional guidance to students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees in psychology. Our mission is consistent with Health People 2010, the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, and other federal initiatives to reduce health disparities.

Funded by a grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrationopens in new window (SAMHSA), the MFP has created the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) and Services for Transition Age Youth (STAY) fellowships to support the training of practitioners or practitioner/researchers in mental health and substance abuse services and prevention. These fellowship programs are directed at students in clinical, counseling and school psychology, or other psychology master's and doctoral students whose training prepares them to provide counseling, therapy, testing, assessments, etc.

An MFP fellowship is more than a simple scholarship that only provides financial support. An MFP fellowship is a professional training appointment into a community of other students and professionals who hold similar professional interests. Indeed, the MFP provides stipends, or living allowances, to students who hold the fellowships. However, we also facilitate professional development and provide professional guidance with the aim of moving students towards high achievement in areas related to mental health research or services in communities of color.

MFP benefits include:

• Financial support (3 years maximum for MHSAS; must be renewed annually, 1 year maximum for STAY)
• Travel support to the APA convention; dissertation support (limited availability)
• Ancillary training opportunities and enrichment experiences
• Access to information and resources
• Lifetime network of professional association with psychologists interested in mental health and services related to communities of color

• Applicants must be American citizens or permanent resident aliens with an alien registration card (I-151 or I-551). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.
• Applicants must demonstrate a strong commitment to a career in ethnic minority mental health and substance abuse services. This commitment must be demonstrated in the application essays, graduate school curriculum or training plan, practicum and internship training experiences and thesis and dissertation topics developed.
• Applicants should be enrolled full-time in an APA-accredited master's or doctoral program. Students not currently enrolled in an APA-accredited master's or doctoral program may apply as long as they gain acceptance into an APA-accredited doctoral program for the fall term immediately following the application deadline.

You may only apply to one Minority Fellowship Program at a time.

For application information, please see the Psychology Fellowships and Programsopens in new window page.