California program funds mental-health workers

An $18,500 award from the Greater Sacramento Marriage and Family Therapy Consortium to three Simpson University graduates will support the trio’s work in mental health for underserved populations.
According to a news release on the school's website, he stipends went to Teri Watts, Kao Syvirathphan and Chloe Lucas, fall 2016 graduates of Simpson’s Master of Arts program in counseling psychology. In exchange for the funds, managed under the state’s Mental Health Services Act, recipients promise to work or volunteer at a mental-health agency for a year.
“These three students have demonstrated outstanding achievement in learning and applying the concepts of community mental health covered by the Mental Health Services Act,” Dr. Addie Jackson, Simpson’s dean of adult and graduate professional studies, said in the release. “All three embody Christ’s teaching to be salt and light in a hurting world.”
Watts works at a domestic-abuse center, Alternatives to Violence, in Red Bluff, California. Syvirathphan works at Shasta County Mental Health, providing treatment for the Mien community. Lucas wrote her thesis on “Parenting in a Transracial Foster Home: Supporting Ethnic Identity Development.”
Learn more about the university by calling 888-974-6776, or go to http://simpsonu.edu.