Ohio Star Behavioral Health Providers (SBHP) is a new initiative developed through a collaboration with the Ohio National Guard, Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Ohio Department of Veterans Services, The Ohio State University, American Red Cross, OhioCares, the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) at Purdue University and the Center for Deployment Psychology. The launch of the program in Ohio is funded through a subcontract from MFRI from the Wounded Warriors Project.

About Star Behavioral Health Providers

Star Behavioral Health Providers (SBHP) is a system for improving the quality of and access to behavioral health services to service members, veterans, and the people that care for them. The SBHP system involves a two pronged approach:
  1. Provide civilian behavioral health providers and other related professionals with training in evidence-based treatment options, as well as training which raises their awareness and sensitivity of the unique challenges faced by military affiliated people. 
  2. Enable military affiliated people to more easily locate the behavioral health resources they need by establishing and maintaining a registry of behavioral health providers which have received the SBHP provided training. Rather than a static and potentially outdated list of links, the provider information in the registry is periodically verified in order to provide a more accessible experience to the person seeking help.

Why is it necessary?

The military affiliated population frequently relies on civilian providers for their behavioral health needs. The reasons for this vary by demographic, but regardless of the reason the challenges facing the military member remain the same. Civilian providers need training outside the regular curriculum in order to fully address the unique issues a military affiliated person brings to the table. Without a central agency providing verifiable training and access to qualified behavioral health providers, military affiliated people are left with the daunting task of finding an appropriate provider. SBHP provides both increased competency in the behavioral health provider market and increased visibility to the military member.

Tiered Training

The SBHP training system includes:
  • Tier One provides an introduction to military culture and information about deployments.
  • Tier Two provides education about challenges and difficulties that may present and are often associated with military service.
  • Tier Three offers clinical skills that focus on specific evidence based treatments to address some of the deployment related behavioral health issues facing service members, such as PTSD, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and suicide.