The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska

Verified facts

Program

Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN)

Organization

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Location

Omaha, Nebraska

Official website

https://www.unmc.edu/bhecn/

Reported by the program

The program describes the following on its official information, reviewed on July 28, 2026.

What it is

BHECN says it was created by the Nebraska Legislature in 2009 and is housed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and that it works to build the state's behavioral health workforce by recruiting, training, and retaining behavioral health workers.

Rural and telehealth focus

To grow the rural workforce, BHECN reports regional sites at Wayne State College in the northeast, the University of Nebraska at Kearney in the center of the state (started in 2015), and Chadron State College in the panhandle (started in 2019). It also offers a telehealth training module at no cost.

What it aims to do

The center describes recruiting, retaining, and increasing the competency of Nebraska's behavioral health workforce, with the broader aim of improving access to behavioral health care across the state.

shrinkiatry context

Nebraska has more rural counties than psychiatrists, and BHECN is the state's structural answer to that gap. Rather than one clinic, it's a workforce and access center that trains and keeps behavioral health clinicians where they're scarce, and it supports telehealth so distance matters less. It isn't a direct clinical service, and we're documenting it as an access and workforce initiative rather than a treatment program. For the Atlas, it captures the rural and telepsychiatry access category from the supply side, which is where Nebraska's access problem actually starts.

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