UTC School of Professional Studies

08/20/2026

Day 2 of Field Bootcamp 🥾 for our extraordinary BSW’s and MSW’s is off to an amazing start! 🎉Our faculty and staff are excited to welcome our new and returning and Mocs! 💙💛

08/17/2026

What's going on behind the scenes at B-HIP?👀

The newest group of trainees are already hard at work on the next video project! 🎉

It takes a village to make this magic happen.Thanks to eLuma for partnering with B-HIP to produce an amazing school-based case study, and a huge shoutout to Atomic Films for an incredible job filming! This project couldn't do this without y'all!
And BIG thank you to the students and faculty who volunteered: Megan Cochran, Charlotte Ellington, Anna Bernstein, Aubrey Miles, Josh Gann, LaBreuna Merity, and Lauryn Crawley. We couldn't have asked for a better group! 👏👏👏

Stay tuned for the completed videos!

06/29/2026

🤔How does a trauma-informed lens influence how mental health professionals conceptualize client care?

In this episode of the Rural Care Collective video series, we discuss trauma informed care.

Residents in the B-HIP service area face significant barriers to health and well-being, with household incomes nearly 25% below the national average and children experiencing poverty at rates 40% higher than their peers across the country. These economic challenges, combined with low educational attainment and widespread health illiteracy, create obstacles that prevent families from accessing and navigating the healthcare they need. Trauma Informed Care can be a supportive framework to assist individuals across clinical and school settings.

🫶A huge THANKS to Megan Olive, Social Worker with Hamilton County Schools, and Virginia Gremmels Duffour, Staff Therapist with Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.

👇Give it a watch or listen, and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on men...

06/24/2026

Bradley County Schools and the PIE Innovation Center have some great things going on!

In this episode of the Rural Care Collective video series, we explore how rural communities are overcoming economic barriers and building business partnerships to create meaningful career development opportunities for their students.

🫶A huge THANKS to Brittany Cannon, Director of the PIE Innovation Center, and Dr. Amanda Hardin, School Psychology Program Coordinator for The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga B-HIP Traineeship Program.

👇Give it a watch or listen, and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on men...

06/10/2026

THANK YOU to Megan Ga***rd, Su***de Prevention Trainer, with Youth Villages, and Beth Tucker, Senior Clinical Director, with Volunteer Behavioral Health, for discussing such a tough topic.

👇Check out our "Su***de and Self Harm in Children, Youth and Young Adults" video below.

In this episode, we explore su***de risk and self harm in children and adolescents, addressing assessment procedures, hospitalization processes, and community resources for prevention and intervention.

Give it a watch or listen and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on men...

06/03/2026

🥳We are excited to share the great news!

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Professional Studies B-HIP Traineeship Program has partnered with the UTC College of Nursing on a recently awarded REACH grant! 👏

The project is titled "Stylists as Community Care Connectors" and is focused on training hair stylists across Southeast Tennessee to connect clients with free and low-cost mental health, healthcare and domestic violence resources via the Chattanooga Care Connector website.

👉 chacareconnector.org

👇 Check out the list of all funded REACH projects at the link below! There are a lot of amazing things happening at UTC!!

https://blog.utc.edu/news/2026/06/utc-reach-fund-supports-community-driven-health-research-across-the-chattanooga-region/

The Research for Evidence-based Action in Community Health (REACH) Fund was established earlier this year through the Journey Health Foundation Research Center housed in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In less than one year, it’s already fundi...

06/01/2026

In May, we launched our Rural Care Collective video series in honor of Mental Health Awareness month. We just posted another video to our YouTube channel!

👇Check out our "Navigating Mandatory Reporting in Tennessee" video below!

In this episode, we explore mandatory reporting responsibilities in Tennessee including how to report child abuse, navigate difficult disclosure situations, and maintain professionalism and self-care while working in this challenging field.

We had the privilege to work with two amazing ladies who have dedicated their lives to serving their communities--Lori Harris Hammond, Rapid Rehousing Case Manager, Partnership for Families, Children and Adults and Linda Elligan, Director of Clinical and Advocacy Programs, Children's Advocacy Center (Chattanooga).

Give it a watch or listen and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on mental and behavioral healthcare topics produced by the University of Tennessee at Chattanoog...

05/28/2026

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. To mark the occasion, we launched our Rural Care Collective video series at the start of the month.

👇Check out our "Fundamentals of Risk Assessment and Crisis Stabilization" video below!

In this episode, we discuss mental health risk assessments, the resources available for high-risk patients, and offer advice for current and future mental healthcare professionals.

Volunteer Behavioral Health's Melissa Zensen, Sr. Director of Hospital and Partner Services, sat down to share her experience in rural communities.

Give it a watch or listen and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on men...

05/22/2026

May is Mental Health Awareness month. In an effort to bring awareness to a number of mental health topics and issues, we launched our Rural Care Collective video series at the beginning of the month.

👇Check out our "Introduction to Rural Mental Health Care" video below!

In this episode, we discuss mental healthcare in rural populations and offer best practices to help behavioral health professionals working within those rural communities.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Dr. Amanda Hardin, School Psychology Program Coordinator for the B-HIP program and Dr. Allen Pratt, Director for the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education, sat down to share their experiences in rural communities.

Give it a watch or listen and share, share, share!

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective, a video series focused on men...

05/04/2026

🥳We are celebrating Mental Health Awareness month with the launch of our Rural Care Collective video series focused on mental and behavioral healthcare topics produced by The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, School of Professional Studies, and funded by the Behavioral Healthcare through Interprofessional training grant (B-HIP).

The first three videos have dropped! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPQJzJgc8OVff3-90ux3oGYB2TaazpdTv

Check out the teaser below to get a sneak peek at what we've been working on. 👇👇👇👇👇Please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!

👏A huge THANKS to the community partners who worked with us to build this series: Volunteer Behavioral Health, Hamilton County Schools, Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, Children's Advocacy Center (Chattanooga), UTC College of Nursing, Youth Villages, Bradley County Schools, and PIE Innovation Center.

Welcome to the Rural Care Collective Video Series (TEASER)