HRSA Priorities: 1) Improve access to quality mental health services; 2) Promote a health care workforce that can address contemporaneous and emerging needs 3) Strengthen population health and obtain health equity; 4) Advance HRSA operations and elevate program management. Amount Requested: $458,409 in Year 1; $464,846 in Years 2-4. Total Requested: $1,852,947 Funding Priority & Funding Preference Requested: Attachment 12 ABSTRACT: This University of Arizona BHWET program will increase the supply of highly trained licensed behavioral health professionals guided by a model of collaborative, team-based care. We will prepare the next generation of integrated mental health care teams by placing psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) students and psychology interns in 9 selected training sites, of which 7 are high need/high demand, all are culturally and linguistically diverse, and all provide integrated care. The workforce outcome is four cohorts of PMHNPs and psychologists who will be poised to deliver high-quality mental health care in a variety of clinical community settings using an integrated, team-based approach upon graduation. Many selected training sites focus on children, adolescents, and transitional age youth. The experiences planned for each cohort include 12-month longitudinal tracks that align with the purpose of the BHWET program and the trainee’s professional interests. For each track, each trainee will be integrated into the partner site’s care team to learn best practices in multidisciplinary care. There are focus areas that were considered when selecting the partner sites, which include child and adolescent mental health, rural/underserved areas, substance use, and late-life mental health. Given the current and anticipated effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, training in telehealth will also be prioritized and many partner sites have implemented telehealth. Building on the successes of the current BHWET grant (HRSA-21-089) directed by the College of Nursing (CON), future BHWET PMHNP students and psychology interns (based in the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine (COM) )will work together. This team approach will mutually benefit each program as they prepare the integrated mental health care teams of the future. Leveraging the clinical and educational expertise of both the CON and the COM will support our shared missions to expand and sustain a multidisciplinary behavioral health workforce in our diverse and underserved region. 1.Goal ONE: Improve care access in rural, border, and medically underserved communities in Arizona through new and enhanced community partnerships that integrate primary and behavioral healthcare services to educate PMHNP-DNP students and psychology interns during their clinical training. 3.Goal THREE: Increase the number and diversity of PMHNP and psychology graduates by providing BHWET traineeships to PMHNP-DNP students and psychology interns who will practice in rural, border, child, adolescent, and transitional age youth, and medically underserved communities.