MO-CARE: Training the Next Generation of Addiction Specialists

MO-CARE focuses on making sure researchers and health care professionals get training in how to treat addiction supported by the most up-to-date science. We offer addiction training programs for undergraduates, Ph.D. students, and post-docs. Additionally, we offer guidance to other training programs as they create and build their addiction-treatment curricula.

For the past 20 years, the Department of Psychological Sciences in the University of Missouri’s College of Arts and Science has offered intensive predoctoral and postdoctoral training in research in alcohol-related behavior and addictions supported by an institutional training grant through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). We recently featured this program here.

During the past decade, this program and MO-CARE researchers have produced dozens of Ph.D. and post-doctoral researchers who have gone on to work at universities, VA hospitals, and medical centers in Missouri and throughout the United States.

MO-CARE also provides addiction training and learning experiences for undergraduate students both at Mizzou and nationally. At Mizzou, a recently developed Addiction Studies Certificate provides coursework and research experience for college students interested in a career in addiction treatment or research.

For the past five years, MO-CARE has run a summer training program for undergraduates, with an emphasis on increasing the number of addiction specialists from under-represented groups. This NIH/NIAAA funded program, the MU Alcohol Research Training Summer School recruits 7-10 college students from around the country for a paid summer internship to study with MO-CARE faculty for the summer. 

One of MO-CARE’s missions is to continue to expand its training programs in both size and scope.