Joe Wehrman, Ph.D., Interim Dean of the College of Education, and Elizabeth Burgin, Ph.D., Military Behavioral Health Child Counselor and Wehrman’s former student, partnered over February 13 and 14 to pilot a new curriculum for the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Foundation.
Burgin, who earned her master’s in clinical mental health counseling from UCCS, currently works at the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
The training is based on the NBCC’s existing Mental Health Facilitator (MHF) program, which aims to supply community members with mental health education and skills, increase awareness around mental health struggles and decrease the stigma surrounding them. This particular training is a tailored version that focuses on military personnel and military-affiliated individuals, and the program participants consisted of local community members with military ties, including UCCS staff, faculty and students. The training is intended for those outside the mental health professional field.
“It’s like first-aid training for social and emotional needs,” Wehrman explained. “For example, if you’re providing first aid at an emergency, you’re identifying and supporting someone at point of injury, but then you would get EMTs or an ambulance involved. So you’re assisting in that initial phase, but then you’re also helping get them to whatever supports they need.”
Wehrman and Burgin not only led the two-day workshop in order to educate local facilitators on the curriculum, but also to help evaluate and refine the training itself.
“There were pre- and post-assessments, and then focus groups with the participants, around the curriculum gaps – where it was doing well and where could it be improved,” Wehrman said. “Our role was delivering the curriculum, but it was also about reviewing the process and getting feedback.”
As both a veteran and longtime MHF Master Trainer, Wehrman has a personal connection to the program and sees it as a way to give back to and help his community.
“Because I’m a veteran and so connected to that community through my own experiences, the best part of facilitating the trainings, for me, is being able to take concepts that are often applied in terms of community support and mental health support and tailoring them to be relevant for military populations, military families and military-connected individuals,” said Wehrman. “I’m able to help increase awareness and support within my community, and it’s an opportunity to give back. It also creates opportunities to strengthen the university’s connection with El Paso county and its own military population.”