UM Professor Earns Grant to Create Mental Health Trainings for Rural Communities

Rural communities have unique characteristics that affect the ability to meet the mental health needs of children. Thanks to a University of Montana seed grant, Lindsey Nichols, assistant professor in the Department of Counselor Education, will develop new and improved mental health facilitation training and implementation models that can be adapted to meet the unique needs of rural communities across Montana.

“After traveling to various schools and conferences and consistently hearing from Montana educators that they need more information about addressing social/emotional issues, I’m excited for the opportunity to develop a curriculum to address those needs,” Nichols said. “We want to create an accessible, sustainable and relevant training for our unique communities to empower people to better understand and respond to mental health needs in their professional roles.”

The project aims to have important implications in the fields of education as well as mental health. There is a current trend in education whereby educators are recognizing that schools can provide both academic and social-emotional support to children as they prepare for college and/or career readiness. Educators are recognizing that if a child experiences mental health distress, they are not likely building academic skills in mathematics or reading. Similarly, policymakers have recognized that addressing mental health through social-emotional curricula should be an integral part of educational curricula.