2 - (SYM 6) Increasing Representation by Focusing on Recruitment and Retention: Spotlight on the American Indians into Psychology Program

American Indian and Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs) experience significant challenges to their health and are often over represented in deleterious health statistics. Mental health service utilization among AI/ANs is mixed with variations by gender, chief complaint, and geographical location (O’Keefe et al., 2023). Stigma surrounding mental health continues to be pervasive among tribal communities and cultural mismatch between provider and patient is often linked with dropout. Availability of AI/AN mental health professionals is scarce with AI/ANs comprising a meager 0.03% of the psychologist workforce in 2021 (Stamm et al., 2023). The widening gap between the identified need for increased mental health services and number of providers is ever present in AI/AN communities. Efforts to address this gap have targeted recruiting AI/AN students from tribal communities towards the field of psychology and bringing services to oftentimes under resourced tribal communities. The American Indians Into Psychology program or INPSYCH is one example of this effort. The INPSYCH grant is operated by the Indian Health Service and is aimed at increasing the number of American Indian/Alaskan Native clinical psychologists. The five-year grant is awarded to APA accredited Ph.D. programs in Clinical Psychology. It funds AI/AN students for training, fees, books, and living expenses and health programming in tribal communities. Currently, three programs are funded and include Oklahoma State University, the University of Montana, and the University of North Dakota. The presentation will focus on Oklahoma State University’s Americans Indians Into Psychology (AIIP) intensive summer program for undergraduates and recruitment of AI/AN doctoral students. Data will be presented on both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Specifically, we will present data on the number of students completing each program, community representation, and information on student’s activity post-program. Student feedback on the program will be presented. Furthermore, the presenter will discuss how each program has evolved over time as a result of feedback from the AIIP community advisory board and students.