From now until January 15, 2020, the national behavioral health provider FHE Health is accepting scholarship applications from college-level and graduate students—as well as rising college freshmen—who are pursuing a career to help those with mental health and addiction needs. The “Hope for Healing” Scholarship will award one undergraduate and one graduate student with a $5000 grant to further their education in the fields of mental and behavioral health, nursing and/or addiction medicine.
Meet the Chair of the Hope for Healing Scholarship Committee
As Chairman of the Board and Director of Education for FHE Health, Dr. Adel Abu-moustafa, Ph.D., is chairing the committee that will select the two final Hope for Healing recipients. It’s a role he’s well-qualified to fulfill. Having also served as Dean of International Health at Tufts University School of Medicine for the past 25 years, Dr. Abu-moustafa has devoted most of his life to investing in the next generation of healthcare leaders.
In a recent interview, he shared why he’s passionate about encouraging more young people to consider a future in addiction recovery and mental healthcare— and, how the Hope for Healing Scholarship is just one more way that FHE Health is mentoring and supporting newcomers in these fields.
The Importance of Career Development in Recovery and Mental Health Fields
Rates of drug and alcohol addiction and suicide are on the rise in this country, while behavioral health professionals who can meet the urgent need for treatment seem in ever shorter supply. Meanwhile, “the behavioral health community has been the outlier in the healthcare field with regards to education for many years,” Dr. Abu-moustafa said. In other words, there’s an urgent need for more training, education, and support in this arena.
How the Hope for Healing Scholarship Will Benefit the Behavioral Health Community
The Hope for Healing Scholarship will help to fill this critical need by providing “multiple benefits to the behavioral health community,” Dr. Abu-moustafa said. As an illustration, he named a few of these benefits:
- “It will encourage early-career individuals who may be uncertain of their direction within the healthcare sector to take an interest in behavioral health.”
- “It will encourage those who have long worked in the field to further advance their education and promote professional growth.”
- And, most importantly, “the scholarship will drive more students to behavioral health academic programs and increase the pool of future behavioral healthcare workers.” This, in turn, will not only increase Americans’ access to care but improve the overall quality of that care— “the ultimate goal,” according to Dr. Abu-moustafa.
How FHE Health Is Training and Mentoring Young Professionals
The Hope for Healing Scholarship is just one way that FHE Health is investing in the next generation of behavioral healthcare professionals. Relying on his background at Tufts, where care was delivered within the model of a teaching hospital, Dr. Abu-moustafa was able to design a similar model of teaching at FHE in the early 2000s. “We train baccalaureate nurses, master’s level practitioners, foreign physicians becoming practitioners, master’s level social workers, psychologists, and healthcare administration professionals,” he said.
In the process, FHE has acquired many academic affiliations over the years. Among them: “Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, University of Miami, Nova Southeastern, and many more,” Dr. Abu-moustafa added.
The Purpose and Passion Behind FHE Health’s Hope for Healing Scholarship
Understood against the backdrop of FHE’s longstanding commitment to education, then, “the Hope for Healing Scholarship is a further advancement of the phenomenal educational work at FHE,” Dr. Abu-moustafa said. He continued:
While our academic affiliations provide students with opportunities to learn on-the-ground, innovative and best practice care, such as through our unique Neurotherapy program, there is a whole population of individuals who are not afforded that opportunity. The Hope for Healing Scholarship is a way for FHE to make an impact on education outside of the confines of its organization and provide resources to anyone with the passion and desire to work in behavioral healthcare.
For Dr. Abu-moustafa, this mission is personal: “As a young Egyptian immigrant on a student visa in the U.S., I was charged with taking advantage of an immense opportunity to advance myself— an opportunity that many of those I grew up with did not enjoy. As a result, it became my goal to pay it forward and provide future generations with the resources and tools to be successful.”
Advice for Anyone Considering a Career Path in Addiction Recovery and Mental Healthcare
When asked what advice he’d give to someone considering a career path in addiction recovery and mental healthcare, Dr. Abu-moustafa emphasized the importance of receiving the proper training and education, because “in this field, there are so many examples of facilities utilizing outdated or poor practices.” He recommended that students immerse themselves in a training program “that provides the latest, innovative and modern approaches to treatment.” In a similar vein, Dr. Abu-moustafa advised newcomers in the field “to remain hungry for knowledge and continue to find opportunities to advance educational growth.”
Are you considering a career in mental and behavioral health, nursing and/or addiction medicine? Learn more about FHE’s Hope for Healing Scholarship.
