About the Journal | The Journal of Equity in Behavioral Health Therapy

About JEBHT

^{8 million U.S. adults will not receive needed mental health treatment and counseling services (SAMHSA, 2018).}
^{5 million adults and children will not receive needed substance abuse treatment (SAMHSA, 2018)}
^{By 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services predicts shortages for behavioral health professionals (SAMSHA, 2018).}
^{Additionally, most of the behavioral health practitioners do not come from ethnic/racial minority backgrounds. Increasing the number of racial and ethnic minority behavioral health practitioners is one proposed method to help remove the disparities in care and access for minoritized clients (SAMHSA, 2018).}

In 2018, Clark Atlanta University became the home for the HBCU Center for Excellence in Behavioral Health with an explicit goal to recruit more behavioral health practitioners from minoritized backgrounds.

As we push to increase the number of racial and ethnic minority practitioners, are there culturally-specific or culturally-responsive practices that improve recruitment, retention, and/or career and professional development for these minority practitioners? Are there practices used by minority practitioners that decrease stigma and improve access for minority clients?

The Journal of Equity in Behavioral Health Therapy (JEBHT) will provide an outlet for research that answers those questions and related topics.

The Journal of Equity in Behavioral Health Therapy (JEBHT) is a double-blind peer-reviewed scholarly online journal. The JEBHT is published twice a year in June and December.

There is no publication fee in the JEBHT. The JEBHT is an international open access journal that focuses on the needs/strengths of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) therapists and therapists-in-training as they prepare for, or engage in, behavioral health therapy and their needs/strengths as they work to improve access to services and decrease stigma about the services.

The articles should be original, unpublished, and not in consideration for publication elsewhere at the time of submission to the JEBHT.

The overarching goal of the journal is to disseminate original research findings that make significant contributions about BIPOC practitioners and clients to behavioral health therapy, behavioral health therapy education, and behavioral health therapy policy. The aim of the journal is to promote the work of academic researchers in behavioral health therapy.

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Equity in Behavioral Health Therapy is a biannual refereed, scholarly journal that showcases conceptual, empirical, practitioner-based, and policy perspectives that demonstrate an interest in the wellness of people of color. This publication focuses on recruitment, retention, training, and career development for people of color who are in traditional behavioral health therapy fields:

^Counseling,
^Nursing,
^Psychology,
^{Psychiatry, and}
^{Social Work.}

The JEBHT is multidisciplinary in scope and welcomes manuscripts focusing on intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in behavioral health therapy that address contemporary, national, and international issues impacting BIPOC therapists and therapists-in-training. Examples of desirable submissions include, but are not limited to:

^{Original research (empirical) [qualitative and quantitative methodologies], conceptual (theoretical), and/or practitioner-based research, and policy perspectives}
^{Research that focuses on recruitment, retention, training, and career development for BIPOC behavioral health therapists (and therapists-in-training)}
^{Research that determines which strategies, interventions, theories, trainings demonstrate effectiveness with BIPOC therapists (and therapists-in-training)}
^{Research that examines what practitioners/practitioners-in-training may need to augment training/education/recruitment/retention.}

Scholars, practitioners, and graduate students are invited to submit their manuscripts for publication following the submission guidelines for authors. Several types of articles are published in the JEBHT. They are:

^{Full-length empirical articles: Comprehensive reports of findings from quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-design research studies}
^{Brief empirical articles: Succinct summaries of findings from quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-design research studies of minimal scope (e.g., pilot studies)}
^{Comprehensive literature reviews: Articles providing summary and analysis of the body of existing research on a topic}
^{Student research: Empirical articles or literature reviews which the first author initiated and/or completed in a graduate degree program.}

The content of submitted manuscripts should clearly be identified as belonging to one of the following categories:

Counseling
Nursing
Psychiatry
Psychology
Social Work
Interdisciplinary.

Narratives matter. JEBHT provides a space to foreground the narratives of BIPOC therapists and trainees as an antidote to the predominant narratives that exacerbate stigma and lack of access for behavioral health therapy services for BIPOC in the United States.