Unity Health Care, a network of community health centers in Washington, D.C., has announced a two-year, $2.3 million grant from the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation to establish a mental health fellowship program.

The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Behavioral Health Development Fund will support efforts to recruit and train the next generation of mental health providers, with a focus on models of care that improve outcomes and drive health equity. According to Unity Health Care, the District of Columbia is facing a severe shortage of mental health professionals, especially in under-resourced communities. The program will be modeled after Unity’s hallmark family medicine and nurse practitioner residency programs.

“Like so many healthcare organizations, we continue to see the impacts of the pandemic highlighting disparities, including heightened mental health challenges populations,” said Unity Health Care president and CEO Jessica Henderson Boyd. “At Unity, we are proud to be a teaching health center and are deeply committed to training the next generation of providers interested in working in community health centers and with under-resourced populations. I am grateful we can now bring innovation and resources to the mental health space. This program will change lives.”

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