Primary Care Training and Enhancement: Physician Assistant Rural Training in Behavioral Health (PCTE-PARB) Program

For programmatic or technical questions:
LCDR Sherray Holland, PA-C
pcte-parmnofo@hrsa.gov

For financial or administrative questions:
Denis Nikiema
dnikiema@hrsa.gov

Grants.gov contact center:
800.518.4726
support@grants.gov
Self-service knowledge base

HRSA contact center:
877.464.4772
TTY: 877.897.9910
HRSA contact page

The PCTE-PARB Program will provide funding to train primary care physician assistants to prevent, identify, diagnose, treat, and refer services for behavioral health conditions. The program goal is to increase the number of trained physician assistants who choose to practice in rural areas after graduation.

Program objectives:

• 3-month minimum integrated behavioral health clinical rotation(s) in a rural primary care setting(s)
• Develop program curriculum to address behavioral health and substance use disorders
• Establish strategic partnerships that support primary care behavioral health integration in rural areas

Program requirements and expectations:

• Place trainees in rural clinical rotations within the first 6 months of receipt of award
• Develop new or grow existing partnerships within the first 6 months after receipt
• Provide curriculum that prepares trainees for clinical rotation. This includes managing prevention, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral services.
• Provide medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) training
• Incorporate interprofessional clinical and didactic learning
• Provide trainees with at least 3 months of clinical rotations at a rural clinic. This work must involve integrating behavioral health with primary care.
• Provide a stipend to enrolled trainees while they are in a clinical rotation at a rural site
• Ensure trainees apply for a National Provider Identifier (NPI) number
• Provide opportunities for preceptor development in behavioral health
• Develop a plan to collect post-graduation employment demographics one year after graduation
• Participate in federally designed evaluations to assess program effectiveness and efficiency

Eligible applicants are academically affiliated physician assistant training programs accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA).

Applicants must be in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, or the Republic of Palau.

Award ceiling: $415,000 per year
Project period: 5 years
Estimated number of awards: 12
Estimated total program funding: $5,000,000

Links to the full announcement, application instructions, and the online application process are available through grants.gov.

Applicant webinar recording.