ALBANY — The New York State Office of Mental Health has announced a collaboration with the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services to create a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Training Academy. Psychiatric rehabilitation helps adults living with major mental health conditions obtain the skills, supports and resources needed to successfully advance their health and recovery and to meet their essential personal social, employment, housing and related life goals, the agencies said during Tuesday’s announcement.

“The new Academy is another investment OMH is making in our mental health workforce and will help to expand the pool of Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioners in New York State,” said OMH Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan. “These men and women provide hope and positive changes to people living with serious mental illness and help to empower them as they make their way towards self-determination and recovery.”

OMH has awarded NYAPRS $6.5 million over three years for the Academy. NYAPRS will be partnering with Boston University and a number of other leading state advocacy and training organizations to develop and provide evidence-based psychiatric rehabilitation training for direct practitioners across New York State. OMH is investing funds secured through the enhanced federal medical assistance program funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“NYAPRS and our training partners are very excited and grateful to OMH for this extraordinary opportunity to strengthen our community workforce’s capability to deliver services that are firmly grounded in recovery-centered psychiatric rehabilitation principles and practices,” said Harvey Rosenthal, chief executive officer of NYAPRS.

The trainings will be targeted to community-based adult outpatient rehabilitation providers and will be delivered through a variety of in-person, virtual, and web-based sessions. Practitioners who complete the entire training series will be eligible to sit for the Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP) exam. The funding includes scholarships for staff to cover the cost of test readiness and the exam.