Morehead State University announced a masters of social work program last week.

The new course comes courtesy of a grant from the Kentucky Association of Health Plans and is aimed at bringing more advanced level social workers to eastern Kentucky.

We have a great need for advanced practitioners in our area.

Eastern Kentucky has increased need and a lot of things, but we just don't always.

There is a gap between our needs and what we actually have in trained professionals.

And so that's really the reason we need to fill that gap between the need of the region and the advanced practitioners in social work.

Social workers are at a really the glue that holds our behavioral health system together.

Moorhead's unique location in eastern Kentucky and the communities that it serves here are particularly in need of these services.

We recognize the different challenges with social determinants of health and how they impact our health care system in Kentucky.

So it's really important and a wonderful way to kickstart that program by doing it here.

It is very important to have more social workers within our area because there is such a need.

We do not have very we don't have very much access to certain certain things like transportation, things of that sort.

And people like within the community.

And we do recognize the needs to meet certain individuals, especially like with substance use disorder and many other things.

But one of the things that we get feedback from from the legislature is that we have a crisis in rural health care in Kentucky.

It's not just a crisis of people that need services, but it's also health care deserts.

This is a way to address that.

You can come here, you can do your undergraduate degree, you can do your master's, and then you can work in our area.

So I think it's going to have a ripple effect.

One thing that one one of my professors always stated that in the community we can find the solution in the community, and that's something that has always stuck with me.

So if we have more community members, that's more of a chance that we're able to make a bigger change.

According to Davison, many students in MSU's social work undergraduate program have already shown interest in sticking around to get their masters.

The program will begin next year.