The Behavioral Health Aide and Provider (BHAP) Program
If you are interested in completing coursework developed by Tribes in the southern plains (Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas) to increase access to behavioral health services for Native and Indigenous people, you have come to the right place! On this page, you will find several pathways you can follow to obtain community-based education in behavioral health that centers the needs, stories, and healing practices of Native and Indigenous people (with a focus on the southern plains). This coursework was designed to meet BHAP National Certification Standards and Southern Plains Regional Certification standards in combination with practice-based training offered at Tribal locations throughout the southern plains region.
The 5 Pathways
There are several pathways through the Behavioral Health Aide and Provider Program at Oklahoma State University. Each pathway is designed to fit a specific training need. If you do not see your needs represented below, please do not worry. You can contact the program coordinator using the “Contact Us” form at the bottom of this page.
Path 1: “Give it a Try and See How it Goes”
This path might be for you if you are aTribal memberwho is interested in advancing your career by becoming a behavioral health provider for a southern plains tribe, butyou have never attended college or you have a low GPA that might make it hard for you to enroll in an undergraduate program without building confidence or increasing your GPA.
Path 2: “Get College Credit and Decide Later”
This path might be for you if you are not ready to commit to the full undergraduate degree in University Studies with an emphasis in behavioral health, but you want to go ahead and earn college credit toward a future degree.
Path 3: “I Want the Highest Level of Certification and Full Degree”
This path might be for you if you know you want to be certified as a Behavioral Health Practitioner (level 4). People might choose this path if they are getting tuition support from Indian Health Services (IHS) or another agency, or if they want the option to do graduate work at some point in the future.
Path 4: “I Want to Add This to My Current Graduate Degree in Behavioral Health”
This path is for people enrolled in graduate programs at OSU or another university who want to complete a BHAP micro-credential as an elective so that they can provide more effective, community-based, Tribally-centered behavioral health services (within and outside of Tribal land).
Path 5: “I Want this Training as Continuing Education for my License”
This path is for people who hold master’s and/or doctoral-level certifications or licenses who want to take individual BHAP courses for continuing education credits (CEU’s) they can count toward their license renewal application.
Additional Information
- Are you new to college and want to learn more about our offices, weird terms we use, and what to expect?
- If you need support as an online learner, you can reach out to our support team directly!
- Brenda Dawes, Director of Academic Program, osuonline@okstate.edu
- Academic Program Specialists: Nicole Hendricks, Brooke Kraybill, Sarah Prater
- If you want to learn more about Behavioral Health Aide certification efforts in Oklahoma, you can check out the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board site.
- Indian Health Services is also tracking expansions in Community Health Aide training on their website.
- OSU provides a lot of micro-credentialing opportunities that you can read about on their micro-credentialing website.
- To learn more about micro-credentials in Oklahoma, you can check out the Upskill OK website.