Impact
From the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2021, the EPIC program has trained a total of 116 West Chester University students from the departments of Graduate Social Work and Counselor Education in School Counseling. Throughout the four years, a total of 16 interprofessional education trainings, five supplemental trainings, and eight (8) graduate level interprofessional education courses have been conducted through the EPIC program.
To date, the new 2021-2025 grant has given the EPIC program the opportunity to train 54 MSW/MEd School Counseling/PsyD students, host one symposium to over 380 participants, conduct eight (8) interprofessional education trainings to approximately 2200 attendees, and offer two (2) graduate level courses. In the works are a series of career building events, another symposium, train two more years of approximately 55 students, and nine (9) more interprofessional training events.
Interprofessional Education Training Topics
(Clicking on underlined topics will take you to the recorded training and related materials when specified)
Nutrition, Food Security, & Mental Health – The Gut Connection
Why Integrated Care is a Public Health Concern
Motivational Interviewing in Integrated Care
Working with Linguistic Minorities
Animal Assisted Therapy
Suicide Awareness and Prevention Across the Lifespan
Older Adults Using Opioids
Recovery and Reducing Stigma for Co-occurring Disorders across the Lifespan
Impact of ACEs/Toxic Stress on Lifelong Health
Integrating Mental Health Care and Case Management Services for Injured Youth and Families
Optimizing Medically Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
Critical Race Theory & Systems of Care: Serving Brown and Black Folks Struggling with Depression and Suicidality
Integrated Care and Violence Prevention
The Importance of Culturally Competent Services for Linguistic Minorities
The Importance of Culturally Competent Services for Linguistic Minorities
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome What Critical Race Theory Teaches Us About Transgenerational Trauma with follow-up Q&A
Optimizing Medically Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Philadelphia with follow-up Q&A
Ethics and Integrated Care
Responding to Infectious Disease Epidemics through Innovation and Interprofessional Practice
Race and Trauma: Urban Identity Development with follow-up Q&A
Integrated Care for Grief and Loss in Children and Adolescents with training materials and follow-up Q&A
Identifying and Managing Suicidal Behaviors in Youth with training materials
Writing Letters for Gender Affirming Surgery: What Licensed Mental Health Providers Need to Know with training materials.
Reproductive Justice for Adolescents and Transitional Aged Youth Post Dobbs Decision with training materials.
An Integrative Health Approach to Support Emerging Adults Impacted by Violence with training materials.
A SHARPened Approach to Service Delivery: Integrating a Motivational Interviewing (MI) Framework with resources and training materials.
Narratives, Poetry, and Mural-Making: How Creative Approaches Can Enhance Our Practice with resources and training materials.
2023 EPIC Symposium: EPIC Integrated Care IRL* Tales (*In Real Life) with resources and training materials.
Making Dreams Work Through Teamwork with training materials.
When All You Have is a Hammer; Nourish, an Interprofessional Program Addressing Teen Struggles with Body Image, Mental Health, and Food with training materials.
Pre-post test data were collected from all interprofessional education trainings. There were 4-6 learning outcomes for each training. In addition, open-ended questions were added to the post-test to ascertain additional feedback to improve the trainings and assess effectiveness. Across all trainings, 98% of student pre-to-post scores were significant, signaling the impact of the training content for our students. (63% of field or faculty scores were significant and 88% of community members scores were significant.)
Pre-post test data were also collected for the 3-credit IPE academic course, in addition to open-ended questions, conducted after the completion of the IPE course to gain feedback. Chi-Square analyses were run for the quantitative data and themes were pulled from the open-ended questions.
Impact
Quotes from Stipend Recipients
“I was able to resign from my job to focus on school full time, I learned how to be a better social worker to vulnerable populations. I can use my skills learned as a social worker as I serve the homeless population and those in recovery living independently.”
“I was hired for a full-time position at my HRSA placement, shortly following graduation.”
“This grant opportunity allowed me access to helping vulnerable populations, learning more about integrated health care and my community, and financially helped me while in school.”
“Having been part of the grant was a part of getting my job at a non-profit public charter school.”
Quotes from Training Participants
“Both presenters did a fantastic job. I enjoyed the specific examples because it made the material come alive.”
“Truthfully, all of the trainings had a great deal of impact. What helped my understanding was the scenarios given to help further my understandings of what is ethical and unethical.”
“This information will help me in the future for when I work in an integrated health building.”
Quotes from Partner Site Supervisors
“My Intern this year was fantastic, and I am glad that there are ways to keep folks in the field with both their lived and worked experiences.”
“Special thanks to West Chester for applying to the HRSA BHWET Grant, there are an abundance of students, community members and client systems who are benefitting from this grant.”
“We love what you are doing to better help serve our community!”
My experience with the EPIC program and particularly the emphasis on integrated care practices and interprofessional collaborations gave me the confidence during my interview process to speak into the importance of this type of healthcare. They were very impressed by my background, especially because of their desire to move towards a more integrated healthcare model. Being an EPIC awardee gave me an extra advantage in my job search and I landed a position with a company that I am truly excited about!
~Veronica Gillen, MSW '20, EPIC Alumna
EPIC Comes Full Circle:
EPIC Alumni Supervisors and Current EPIC Students
We interview two EPIC Alumni who are currently supervising EPIC students. Anamika Anand, MEd, WCUPA M'18 and Jordan Cunningham, LCSW, WCUPA M'19 and their students Brad Schmidinger, MSW Candidate '23 and Micailla Fitzpatrick, MEd School Counseling Candidate '23 join us to discuss the EPIC Program and the EPIC Supervisor/Student relationship.
Research compiled by Dr. Cheryl Neale-McFall, PhD, MEd, LPC, Program Evaluator and Sarah Franciotti, MEd, Research Assistant