The first-ever UNLV Mental Health Initiatives Forum will take place inside the university’s Greenspun Hall on Apr. 5. It is sponsored by The Lincy Institute, BeHERE NV, UNLV PRACTICE, and the UNLV Department of Psychology. The event will feature three UNLV-led efforts to address and improve the landscape of mental health in Nevada. 

“Maybe the only silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it highlighted mental health,” said David Damore, executive director of The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West. “It is an issue that was stigmatized, but now is front-and-center in a lot of policy discussions.”

And that is not without reason: Nevada is struggling with mental health. Through The Data Hub, researchers at The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West have published numerous fact sheets on the state of mental health in The Silver State. Nevada ranks last in the nation for overall mental health. Never mind the worker shortage. Nevada is operating with 26.8% of the recommended number of school psychologists, and 2.9% of the recommended number of school social workers.

“The purpose of this forum is to showcase how UNLV is responding to the crisis,” said Damore. “We have three different initiatives led by faculty members, and we want the community to know that we hear the need and we’re trying to address this.”

Those three initiatives include: 

• UNLV PRACTICE is a teaching, training, and research clinic in the College of Education and Liberal Arts that offers affordable high-quality behavioral, cognitive, and mental health services to the Las Vegas community. Students in advanced graduate programs are trained and supervised by faculty experts in school psychology, clinical psychology, and mental health counseling. 
• BeHERE Nevada is a new statewide effort intending to increase Nevada’s behavioral health workforce. It is housed within the Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV with collaborators at NSHE institutions and partner agencies statewide. Efforts will include outreach to K-12 students about mental health careers and highlighting the educational training pathways that exist within NSHE. The organization will also connect graduates to employers in Nevada. 
• MTSS School-based Service Delivery is about identifying mental and behavioral health problems in Clark County schools and performing on-site interventions. This multi-tiered system of support, managed by the UNLV Department of Psychology, includes mental health and attendance problems, consultation and accommodation plans, and providing options for families. 

“These are three bright stars in the constellation of mental health,” said Michelle Paul, assistant vice president of mental and behavioral health at UNLV and executive director of the PRACTICE. “I think it’s important for the community to rally behind these initiatives so we can make them as successful as possible.”

The forum will be Friday, Apr. 5, 2024 from 8:45-11:30 a.m. in the first floor auditorium inside Greenspun Hall and will consist of a panel discussion and audience Q&A with the researchers and the primary leadership behind these programs..

The event is free and open to the public, though spots are limited. It is asked that attendees fill out this form in order to RSVP. 

“This is UNLV’s approach to addressing a community need,” said Paul. “We’ve been in a mental health crisis for a long time and this is UNLV saying to the community: ‘We're here to help.’”