Reporter
María Cortés González

The care of mental-health patients in El Paso will greatly improve in 2013 thanks to a new doctoral psychology student internship program, officials said.

The five-year program will be funded by more than $750,000 from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and the El Paso del Norte Health Foundation.

"Our foundation is involved with this initiative primarily because of our interest in helping this region recruit and train more health-care providers. It's a thrill for us to be part of this consortium," said Myrna Deckert, president and CEO of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, who introduced collaborating professionals and organizations on Friday during a ceremony at the Wells Fargo Building.

The consortium includes the University of Texas at El Paso, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Beaumont Army Medical Center, all of which will be involved in providing the training for the students.

UTEP President Diana Natalicio stressed the need for mental-health professionals in EL Paso.

"As many of you know, the El Paso area suffers from a severe shortage of health-care providers, and mental-health professionals are in particularly short supply. Doctorally prepared, Texas-licensed psychological service providers total 38 in El Paso compared with 489 in Austin and 297 in San Antonio," Natalicio said.

She added, "There's also no accredited internship training programs locally that could correct this situation up until today."

Natalicio

said the university is well positioned to host the internship program.

"Having quickly earned a national reputation for research competitiveness, UTEP is the only research doctoral university in the United States with a majority Mexican-American student population," she said.

Dr. Octavio Martinez, executive director of the Hogg Foundation, said the grant is part of the foundation's Psychology Internship Initiative that began in 2011 in Texas. Through its internships in El Paso, as well as in Temple, Austin and Houston-Clear Lake, the initiative is expected to train 62 doctoral psychology students and create 19 new positions in Texas by 2017.

Consortium leaders said the internship in El Paso will comprise a diverse range of education, training and supervision opportunities for interns.

Leaders also expect the program to attract the best students.

"We expect the program to attract highly competitive, advanced doctoral students from outstanding programs across the United States. The diversity of training sites and unique cultural and linguistic context that they offer will prepare these interns to serve our region when they graduate as newly licensed psychologists," Natalicio said.

Natalicio also expects UTEP students who have left to pursue doctoral programs in psychology to return to El Paso to finish their training and hopefully stay to serve the community.

Brig. Gen. Dennis D. Doyle, commander of Beaumont, said Beaumont operates one of the largest inpatient psychiatric services in the Army, with 28 beds.

He said he would welcome the interns and their help in enhancing services to soldiers and their families.

Internships at Beaumont will be in general mental health, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

John S. Wiebe, associate provost of the Department of Psychology at UTEP and the program's director, said the university will work with a national match service, much like the ones for medical students, to select students.

"We're expecting to do those interviews in the beginning of next year and expect our first class of interns to arrive in August," Wiebe said.

The one-year internship will begin with six students -- three at Beaumont, two at UTEP and one at Texas Tech.

"We hope to grow that number over the course of the grant," Wiebe said.

María Cortés González may be reached at mcortes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6150.