Free Training For Behavioral Health Providers To Help Service Members

Emory University and the BraveHeart: Welcome Back Veterans Southeast Initiative have formed a collaboration with the Georgia National Guard, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the Center for Deployment Psychology, and Purdue University, to introduce STAR Behavioral Health Providers (SBHP) in Georgia.

SBHP, better known as STAR, will be holding a free training event on Wednesday, December 3, in Ellenwood, GA. CEUs will be offered for LCSWs, LPCs, and LMFTs. CEUs for psychologists will be offered pending GPA approval.

STAR works with course content created by the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP). STAR is a three-tiered training program, with each training tier building upon knowledge from the previous tier. Tier One will be taught by STAR partners in Georgia. Tiers Two and Three will be taught by special teams from CDP. Tiers One and Two are open to all interested individuals, and Tier Three is open to licensed mental health providers.

• Tier One provides awareness about topics specific to the military and an introduction to military culture and information about deployments.
• Tier Two provides education about challenges and difficulties that may present and are often associated with the military.
• Tier Three offers clinical training for licensed mental health professionals, focusing on specific evidence- based treatments to address some of the behavioral health issues facing service members, such as PTSD.

People associated with the military have specialized needs, speak their own language, and have a higher need for mental health services than ever before. The mission and intention of STAR is to facilitate the care of Georgia service members and their families. STAR will train interested civilian behavioral health providers in both the specific culture of the military and in treatment approaches that focus on the needs of the military population, namely evidence-based PTSD treatments including Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), as well as CBT for Insomnia.

STAR manages a registry of these specially trained providers so that service members, their families, and referring professionals can easily access those trained providers. Providers are eligible to be listed in the registry upon verification of state mental health provider licensure and completion of Tiers I, II, and III trainings.

Please mark your calendars for Wednesday, December 3! This Tier One training will begin at 7:30am and end at 5pm.

For more information, visit http://starproviders.org/providers/states/georgia/.