Kudos: Heckman receives $1.4M to combat opioid crisis; UGA Speech and Hearing Clinic voted Best Hearing Aid Center

Heckman receives $1.4M to combat opioid crisis

As part of a new initiative called the Five-Point Strategy, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) recently awarded nearly $400 million to combat the opioid crisis, including a $1.4 million grant to University of Georgia researchers who will work to enhance community-based training for students preparing to become behavioral health professionals focused on opioid and substance use disorders.

UGA’s award will bring an interdisciplinary team of researchers together from the College of Education, the School of Social Work, and the College of Public Health to grow the state’s opioid-related behavioral health workforce as part of HRSA’s Opioid Workforce Expansion Program. Over the course of three years, the team will train about 100 graduate students to help increase mental and behavioral health services in Georgia and beyond.

“What excites me is that we’ll be able to support and strengthen our training in evidence-based treatments for opioid and substance use disorders for our graduate students, while also providing prevention education to the community,” said Bernadette Heckman, principal investigator of the grant and professor in the College of Education’s Department of Counseling and Human Development Services. “Students are eager to learn about different kinds of approaches in therapy, which we hope in the long term can fill in some of the gaps in mental health care in our community.”

Read the full story on our website.

UGA Speech and Hearing Clinic voted Best Hearing Aid Center

Congratulations to the clinical faculty and staff of the Speech and Hearing Clinic who recently won the title, Best Hearing Aid Center.

Having patients vote the clinic as Best Hearing Aid Center in Athens is truly heartwarming and gratifying. Every day, the clinic works to enhance patients’ ability to communicate and connect to the world.