The recent expansion of UAA's Psychological Services Center (PSC) marks an important step forward for mental health care in Alaska. The behavioral health training clinic, which operates on a sliding fee scale, now has dedicated space for pediatric services and more couples and group therapy.

"Ultimately, we want to be a resource for, not only our department for training, but for our community, and help provide some of the services where there are gaps right now, or long, long waitlists. I think we're really able to do that because we could see anyone that we're clinically appropriate for across Alaska, either in person or through telehealth," said PSC Director Dr. Hannah Ekstrom, who earned a bachelor's in psychology, master's in clinical psychology and M.B.A. from UAA and doctorate in psychology from APU.

Doubling space to serve Alaskans

Prior to the expansion, the clinic had five therapy rooms and supported training for students in the M.S. in clinical psychology and Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology programs. The PSC provides approximately 2,000 clinical visits each year and supports 200 individuals annually.

As the Department of Psychology expanded graduate offerings to include a behavior analysis track in the M.S. in clinical psychology program and a new M.S. in school psychology, more space was needed to provide additional training opportunities while helping meet Alaska’s mental health needs.

"The training that I received from UAA was very Alaska-specific, and that has definitely helped shape how I think about our programs and services," said Ekstrom.

Today, the clinic has 10 therapy rooms and is in the process of integrating training for the new graduate programs, welcoming the first cohort of M.S in school psychology student-clinicians this summer and plans to incorporate behavior analysis student-clinicians later this academic year. Once the expanded services are established, PSC expects to serve closer to 300 individuals annually.

"The main goal of our expansion was not only space, but to have space that would be appropriate to work with children, to work with families and to do more assessments and groups," said Ekstrom.

Among the new spaces are a play therapy room for working with young children and a connected observation room that allows student-clinicians, parents or supervisors to observe and learn. The expansion also added rooms for more specialized assessments and group therapy.

While developing the new school psychology master's program, director and professor Dr. Hattie Harvey, Ph.D., was intentional about incorporating training at the PSC for students. She also secured funding for an assessment library coordinator to help build up a structured program library for all PSC testing materials.

The clinic is inherently and uniquely interdisciplinary for the variety of specialties and degree programs coming together for training and services. Ekstrom noted how that mirrors psychological services across Alaska, where the state's psychology professional association includes not only psychologists and psychology-trained practitioners, but also counselors and social workers.

"We have a tremendous need for behavioral health services across the state — whether it's direct care, whether it's assessment, whether it's community-based work or whether it's research. A lot of time and effort, commitment and passion go into being able to provide those services. And people don't fill those roles just out of nowhere. The more programs that are being offered at UAA, the more that we're able to train our own and begin to meet the behavioral health needs of Alaskans," said Peter Noon, PSC clinic coordinator and doctoral student in UAA's clinical-community psychology program.

Faculty speak at the PSC expansion grand opening: Professor and Director of Psychology Dr. Eric Murphy; School Psychology Program Director Dr. Hattie Harvey; PSC Director Dr. Hannah Ekstrom. (All photos by James Evans / University of Alaska Anchorage)

'It takes a village'

Initial funding for the expansion came from a federal Health Resources and Services Administration appropriation sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who also sponsored an additional appropriation of school psychology funds to support the integration of the new master's program and development of the clinic.

Funding from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development supported school psychology services at the clinic, including several new staff positions. The Alaska Mental Health Trust also provided funding to support the clinic expansion.

At UAA, leadership and faculty with the Department of Psychology — including the department's Assistant Dean Dr. Eric Murphy, Ph.D., professor Dr. Hattie Harvey, Ph.D., and PSC Director Dr. Ekstrom, Psy.D. — helped shape the vision for the clinic's growth while working to make it financially possible. Catherine Warden, fiscal manager for Facilities, helped with the financial side of the expansion, while the Facilities team took the lead on building out the new space.

The clinic welcomed the community to campus to celebrate in April with a grand opening featuring tours led by several PSC team members, including clinic coordinator Noon.

"When I was there, I saw all the faculty, staff, and community partners who were part of starting this idea as just a little seed, nurturing it, growing it, advocating for it, and then going through the rigorous, technical, time-consuming work of then launching it, constructing it," said Noon. "It really, to me, highlighted how it takes a village. It takes a large, coordinated, committed and passionate effort to make a clinic expansion like this happen."

Noon also spoke at the event with several representatives from community groups who helped provide funding for the expansion, including the Alaska Mental Health Trust.

"It was one of those experiences that reminds me why I'm so interested and committed to doing the work that I'm doing, because it makes a difference and people in the community notice," said Noon.

For Ekstrom, the engagement from the community was a highlight of the event as well.

"Hopefully, it helps people know that we're here, so that if they know people that could benefit or have questions about services, they know that we're here on campus," said Ekstrom.

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UAA's Psychological Services Center provides high-quality, low-cost services to students, faculty, staff and community members anywhere in Alaska year-round. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call the PSC at 907-786-1795.