Robyn Mehlenbeck, professor of psychology at George Mason University and director of George Mason’s Center for Community Mental Health (CCMH), has been awarded the Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC) Directors Innovation Award in recognition of the impactful stepped care model of treatment she co-developed and implemented for use at CCMH. The award honors a member clinic of APTC and its director who has implemented a meaningful innovation that positively impacted the training, research and/or service provision being done in that clinic.
George Mason’s CCMH is a multidisciplinary training facility for students in behavioral health and provides the Northern Virginia community with personalized, accessible, culturally sensitive, and state-of-the-art mental health resources and services. The Stepped Mental Health Care program follows three simple steps: free emotional support lines in English and Spanish, low-cost coping skills-based treatment, and longer-term therapy.
The program emphasizes the value of evidence-informed approaches and treatment. The steps build onto one another, curating the best treatment based off evidence-informed approaches and the individual needs of every person that seeks help.
“This is exactly the type of innovation that improves our field broadly both in terms of training and in terms of making the most impact in the communities we serve,” said APTC Awards Committee Chair Sarah Boghosian. “Dr. Mehlenbeck is an invaluable member of our organization, and it was an honor to be able to celebrate her at our recent conference.”
The impact this model poses for the future of mental health treatment is undeniable. Not only does the model provide an opportunity for students to gain a larger skillset, but it is a diverse and empathetic model that tackles problems of social justice that have not been challenged before. The program’s attention to personal detail reflects the precedent of care it sets for future programs.
“Our goal for this program is to increase access to mental health care by increasing the access points—when someone needs emotional support, they can call the lines. If they need coping skills, we have the brief intervention available with no waitlist,” said Mehlenbeck. “This is really special and even more impressive, a program at University of Buffalo is actually modeling their new program based on our Stepped Care Model.”
April 29, 2024