Oregon Integrated Behavioral Health Training Initiative
Project Overview
The primary purpose of the Oregon Integrated Behavioral Health Training Initiative (OIBHTI) is to increase the supply and distribution of well-trained, culturally responsive counselors into integrated behavioral health (IBH) settings serving children, adolescents, and young adults at risk for trauma and behavioral health disorders.
Through this initiative, we aim to increase access to essential behavioral health services to children, adolescents, and emerging adults from medically underserved areas &/or populations and increase counselor trainee access to paid experiential training and postgraduate employment.
Our community partners in OIBHTI who provide supervised clinical placement for trainees are public, private, and not-for-profit community-based organizations that provide integrated behavioral health or outpatient mental health services to children, adolescents, and adults ages 18-25.
Essential healthcare for underserved communities
According to the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), a “shortage designation identifies an area, population, or facility experiencing a shortage of health care services." OIBHTI trainees were selected on the basis of experience counseling children, adolescents, and/or emerging adults and, at the master’s level, for accepting field placements at sites designated by HRSA as shortage areas.
Medically underserved community (MUC) designations included mental health and primary care healthcare profession shortage areas (HPSAs), medically underserved areas (MUAs), medically underserved populations (MUPs), and rural areas. Through OIBHTI, children, adolescents, and emerging adults who may lack direct access to primary care or in-person mental health counseling gain connections to vital holistic healthcare via telehealth.
Community engaged clinical practice & research
Given OSU’s status as a land grant institution, “the radical ideas of public education, scientific research, and engagement with the public are written into its mission." OSU’s Counseling program has sustained community partnerships with schools, school-based mental health programs, community-based mental health clinics, and integrated care clinics that provide supervised counseling opportunities to school and clinical mental health counseling students.
OIBHTI will build on this foundation by working closely with agency- and school-based site supervisors and increasing partnerships with school-based health clinics and agencies offering integrated behavioral health (IBH). To address the inequities in access to bilingual counseling for Oregon residents who identify as Latine, sites with at least 15% Latine enrollment will be prioritized. In 2025-26, OIBHTI partnered with 8 community sites serving children, adolescents, and emerging adults at risk of trauma or co-occurring disorders.
Research on access to healthcare shows that social determinants of health (SDOH) like neighborhood, environment, and socioeconomic and factors like racial and ethnic identities and class status have significant impacts on engagement and retention in care and on mental and physical health outcomes. OIBHTI was designed to take a prevention-focused approach to SDOH by teaching trainees about evidence-based practices well-suited to IBH systems like screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT). Developmentally appropriate screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and common mental health concerns like depression and anxiety can help inform counselor interventions of client-centered counseling and referrals.
By providing early intervention and culturally-responsive counseling to younger clients and their families in IBH settings, including counseling in Spanish and English by bicultural trainees, OIBHTI can reduce mental health stigma in families and communities who may not traditionally access mental healthcare. Program evaluation will inform rapid-cycle quality improvement throughout the lifespan of the project, with team members meeting monthly to review key data points and adjust approaches to training, community engagement, and service delivery as needed.
Potential research studies include a multi-site program evaluation, examination of trainees’ and supervisors’ attitudes toward evidence-based practice, assessment of IBH competencies, and examination of the impact of counselor interventions on client outcomes in IBH settings. Communication of key program outcomes to trainees, community partners, and other College and University stakeholders will demonstrate OIBHTI’s impact on the provision of integrated behavioral health services to children, adolescents, and emerging adults (ages 18-25) in Oregon.
project team profiles
Dr. Arien Muzacz
Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Director
Dr. Andrew Wood
Co-investigator and Director of Training
Dr. Thomas Field
Co-investigator and Project Evaluator
Dr. Abraham Cazares-Cervantes
Co-investigator and Bilingual Clinical Supervisor
Dr. April LaGue
Co-investigator and Clinical Coordinator
Dr. Olivia Lewis
Co-investigator
Trainee profile
SITE PROFILE
Maddy Jones
Maddy’s academic and professional journey reflects a deep commitment to holistic, culturally responsive mental health care. As a graduate student pursuing a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Oregon State University, her studies center on trauma-informed approaches with a clinical focus on suicidology. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Indigenous Studies, grounding her work in an understanding of how mind, culture, identity, and systemic forces intersect in shaping individuals and their communities' wellbeing.
Prior to entering the program, Maddy spent six years in direct service roles, including crisis intervention, permanent supportive housing, clinical research, and case management. These experiences underscored to Maddy the importance of quality, integrative care and shaped her approach to therapy, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of identity, relationship, and resilience in healing. She is committed to honoring Indigenous knowledge systems and incorporating decolonial frameworks that foster reconnection to land, lineage, purpose, and self, viewing mental health as inseparable from physical, spiritual, communal, and environmental dimensions.
Maddy currently provides counseling services at the Center for Community Counseling, an organization dedicated to making therapy accessible and affordable for individuals who could not otherwise access mental health services. After graduation, Maddy aspires to work with tribal populations on tribal lands, reaffirming her commitment to integrative care and embracing the honor and joy of providinggood medicine to her people.
Center for Community Counseling
The Center for Community Counseling believes everyone deserves the sense of peace, security and stability good mental health brings. The Center for Community Counseling's mission is Transforming Lives and Healing Relationships. What began as “a daydream” of Dr. Jan Moursund back in 1978 as Aslan Counseling Center (renamed in 1994) has become the only place in Lane County where adults with limited incomes can receive low cost, long term counseling.
CCC makes therapy accessible and affordable for those who have no other means of getting support. We believe the “ripple effect” of one person making changes in their life is tremendous. The positive impact this can have on partners, spouses, children, friends, family and our community is immense! A well community is a strong community!
OIBHTI is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through a Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training for Professionals (BHWET-Pro) program award (#M01HP54876).
