This past legislative
session the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care at the Minnesota Department
of Health (MDH) was provided additional funding and an expansion of their loan
forgiveness program to include both Rural and Urban Mental Health Professionals
(among others). The approved professions under Mental Health are LICSW,
LPCC, LMFT and Psychologists, per state statute.
The Loan forgiveness program
provides funds for repayment of qualifying educational loans which include
government, commercial and foundation loans for actual costs paid for tuition,
reasonable education and living expenses related to the graduate or
undergraduate education of a health care professional. In exchange for
working full time a minimum of 3 years (maximum of 4 years), in either a
designated rural area or a primary care health professional shortage area
(HPSA), medically underserved area (MUA), or with medically underserved populations (MUPs), the program will pay a portion of the individual’s student
loan debt.
Please view the Minnesota
Health Professional Loan Forgiveness Programs brochure for more
information about the program.
The application is open
right now and will close on Monday, January 4, 2016 at 5 pm. To
apply you will need to register and create a user ID and password through the
MDH WebGrants system: www.health.state.mn.us/divs/orhpc/funding/loans/urbanmental.html
Once your registration is
approved you can search for the FY 2017 Mental Health Professional funding
opportunity, and begin your application.
To look at the guidelines
for both the Urban and Rural Mental Health Professionals, please go to these
links:
Rural - http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/orhpc/funding/loans/ruralmental.html
Urban - http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/orhpc/funding/loans/urbanmental.html
|
