UC Santa Barbara Gervitz School partners with three universities to launch national center expanding school mental health workforce

ISLA VISTA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, partnered with three other universities, announced the U.S. Department of Education awarded them a four-year, $10.4 million federal contract to launch and operate a national center to expand the school-based mental health workforce.

This national center called METRICS (Mental Health Evaluation, Training, Research, and Innovation Center for Schools), aims to expand the workforce of school psychologists, social workers, school counselors, and other practitioners, according to organizers.

As part of a national school mental health collaborative, UCSB said that along with University of Wisconsin Madison, University of South Florida, and University of Iowa, it will contribute school mental health expertise and resources to ensure the success of the new center, METRICS.

UCSB said that its team from the Gervitz School's Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology includes Erin Dowdy, Ph.D., Professor; Michael Furlong, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Jon Goodwin, Ph.D., Assistant Teaching Professor; and Arlene Ortiz, Ph.D., Assistant Teaching Professor.

“We are excited to collaborate with other leading institutions and scholars focused explicitly on school mental health,” said Dr. Dowdy. "We recognize the tremendous need, both locally and nationally, to invest significant energy to improve the well-being of children and youth in the place they are most likely to receive mental health services."

“At UCSB, we hope to shift the conversation away from a focus on distress, towards an emphasis on wellness and student strengths,” said Dr. Goodwin. “We hope that our work on METRICS will be focused on prevention and early intervention, prior to students having significant symptoms of distress.”

For more information, visit https://education.ucsb.edu.