Improving access to mental health care
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With its new graduate program, UD will prepare students to address a national shortage of available clinical psychologists
A new University of Delaware graduate degree program could help close the professional talent gap in clinical psychology and better support the growing need nationally for high-quality mental health care.
Beginning with its first cohort in Fall 2025, UD’s master of science in clinical psychological science will enhance students’ understanding of psychological practice through both research and clinical application. The new master’s program sits at the intersection of the latest academic research on how treatments are developed in laboratories and practical clinical intervention, said Ryan Beveridge, the executive director of UD’s Institute for Community Mental Health (ICMH), within which the program will be housed. (The program has begun accepting applications.)
UD’s newest graduate degree program is unprecedented. While clinical psychological science master’s programs are offered by institutions listed as R1 in the Carnegie Classification — which recognizes doctoral universities with very high research activity — UD’s program will be the first at a R1 university that will offer clinical training designed to meet curricular requirements for state licensing boards. This training model centers on emphasizing mastery of short-term, evidence-based interventions and acquiring skills to better understand and apply clinical research.
“Our program will offer students a unique opportunity to be trained as clinicians who think like scientists—transforming clinical care into a synergistic relationship between research knowledge and practice,” said Beveridge, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in UD’s College of Arts and Sciences. “Students will develop the skills necessary to address critical workforce shortages in mental healthcare while providing the highest-quality, evidence-based treatments available.”
UD’s master of science in clinical psychological science is a 60-credit, full-time program that can be completed in three years. Students gain immersive, in-person experience through clinical training at UD’s on-campus community clinic, located on its STAR Campus. These rigorous learning opportunities occur while students complete courses in psychotherapy, psychopathology, research design for clinicians, and other areas. Students also complete a clinical research project that will serve as their master’s thesis, intended to train students as clinicians who are adept at understanding scientific foundations of their work. In the final year of the program, students complete a full-time clinical internship that will make them eligible to sit for licensure exams through the Association of State and Provincial Psychology in order to practice in an ever-growing list of states.
The graduate-level program is the latest of several new academic offerings from the University of Delaware aimed at addressing the health needs of Delawareans and beyond, including a graduate certificate in epidemiology and a master’s of social work program.
The need for clinical psychologists couldn’t be greater.
Today, professional clinicians are struggling to meet the ever-expanding needs of their patients. Data from the American Psychological Association found that clinical psychologists have experienced yearly increases in their workload since 2020—the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients with mental health concerns have limited access to care, with nearly six in 10 clinical psychologists are unable to accept new patients and aren’t even maintaining a waitlist. In 2024, the APA began accrediting master’s programs in health services psychology, like those in clinical psychological science, to help address the need for access to mental health care.
Roughly 121 million Americans live in areas with mental health professional shortages, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, needing more than 6,100 practitioners to close the gap in available care. Simultaneously, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting that employment for clinical psychologists nationally will increase by 10% by 2031.
“In the U.S., we have a major problem with a lack of access to quality, science-based mental health care in our communities,” Beveridge said. “The problem existed before the pandemic, has gotten worse, and is showing no signs of slowing. Almost everyone you talk to can feel this need. We are excited that this novel master’s program can be part of the solution, by graduating students who can help meet the mental health workforce needs of our society, and also serve as a training model for other programs across the country.”
To learn more about the program and apply, visit the program website.
Article by Photos by Evan Krape.