KU social welfare student from Topeka wins national research fellowship

LAWRENCE, KS (07/26/2012)(readMedia)-- Felicia Mitchell, a University of Kansas doctoral student in social welfare, is one of 13 students nationally to receive a Doctoral Clinical Fellowship Award from the Council on Social Work Education Mental Health and Substance Abuse Fellowship Program. The award provides each student $22,000 annually for three years. The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Fellowship Program is awarded to social workers with a master's of social work, who are planning for leadership, teaching, consulting, training, policy development, or administration in mental health and substance abuse with ethnic minorities.

Mitchell plans to complete her doctorate in 2014. She received her master's of social work from George Warren Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis in 2004, her bachelor's in social work from the University of Kansas in 2003, and she graduated from Topeka High School in 1999. She is the daughter of Preston Mitchell and Susan Raikes of Topeka.

Mitchell is committed to undertaking research on health disparities that will include monitoring and analyzing changes in mental health prevention, programs and policies that may occur as a result of health care reform. She is also interested in the relationship between mental health services and primary care and the implications of service integration under health care reform. These interest areas include examining the effectiveness of policies for mental health disparities in regards to ethnic and racial minority populations and developing innovative policy research that can directly and demonstrably contribute to the elimination of mental health disparities. Mitchell's proposed outline of work will contribute to the achievement of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's strategic initiative regarding health care reform by identifying model policies, or best practices, for implementing health care reform and by contributing to the literature that focuses on the creation and integrated services for people with co-occurring conditions in regards to mental and physical health.

"Before coming back to obtain my Ph.D., I managed two federal grants that focused on disease prevention with American Indian communities. During this time, I started exploring the preventive health literature and came across research on the social determinants of health, which sparked my interest in developing a broader, holistic view of health and all the factors that influence it. I came to realize, to truly create substantial change for future generations a larger network of collaborative health and social programs and policies are necessary. I am truly grateful for this fellowship as it will allow me to contribute to the research and leadership that will contribute to such changes," Mitchell said.

The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Fellowship Program is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Center for Mental Health Services, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.