Lisvel Matos, PhD student, has been awarded the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) grant through the American Nurses Association (ANA).

A lack of ethnic/minority diversity in mental health and substance abuse services for underserved minority populations has been well documented by the ANA, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Institute of Medicine (IOM), and numerous other organizations.

The increase in minority nurses in the workforce over the past decade has been miniscule. The need for services from the patient or client perspective based on race and ethnicity, or gender is striking with the heaviest burdens of morbidity and mortality resting on ethnic/minority populations, who also tend to have a lower socioeconomic status, less education, restrictive language capacities, insufficient health literacy skills, and fewer opportunities for upward mobility.

The purpose of the SAMHSA MFP grant at ANA is to reduce various health disparities and improve health care outcomes for racially and ethnically diverse populations by increasing the number of culturally competent behavioral health professionals available to underserved minority populations in the public and private non-profit sectors, and in clinical and community-based organizations and institutions.

The MFP provides opportunities for minority nurses to attain a doctoral degree, with certification in mental health and substance abuse disorders prevention, treatment, and recovery across the life span.