How We Can Make the Mental Health Workforce More Diverse

Hint: Education!

This week, CUNY SPS got some exciting news! New York Governor Hochul announced that the New York State Office of Mental Health will allocate $4 million in federal funding to support underrepresented students entering or enrolled in mental health degree programs at State University of New York or City University of New York campuses.

As the governor’s website explains, SUNY and CUNY will each get $2 million to support tuition assistance, paid internships, and direct stipends for minority and multilingual students.

Very excitingly, CUNY SPS is one of the participating schools, which means that eligible students in our top-rated online BA in Psychology and MA in Psychology programs will be the benefactors of these funds.

I am personally very pleased to see that New York State is seeking to address a lack of diversity in the mental health field by investing in our students.

It’s also very exciting since CUNY SPS is one of the few schools to offer online programs in these fields, which makes it more convenient and flexible for adult students who are working or juggling family responsibilities to attend.

In an added bonus, our psychology programs are also ranked among the highest in the country. This year, the CUNY SPS BA in Psychology was #2 on U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 list of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs in Psychology. And in 2021, our MA in Psychology was ranked #8 by College Values Online on their list of Master’s in Psychology Online: Top 20 Values.

I can’t wait to see how our psychology students benefit from this new state program, and how they will use their degrees to better meet the mental health needs of underserved populations!