OMAHA- To help grow the state’s mental and behavioral health workforce, the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska has opened its third rural site — this one in northeast Nebraska. The center at the Wayne State College campus joins a sister site at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, which launched in 2015, and another that started in 2019 at Chadron State College.

The latest addition means the state-funded BHECN is halfway to meeting one of its goals: to develop six behavioral health regional sites. Recognizing a mental health professional shortage even back in 2009, the Nebraska Legislature created the BHECN to recruit, retain and increase the competency of the state’s behavioral health workforce.

Dr. Marley Doyle, who heads the BHECN, said that establishing the rural sites in places like northeast, central Nebraska and the Panhandle is an attempt to tailor training, recruitment and retention to the needs of particular regions. “Nebraska is a geographically and demographically diverse state, and that means providers, students and trainees face different challenges” based on the part of the state in which they work, said Doyle.

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