The Feinberg School of Medicine will spearhead the country’s first clinical psychology internship centered on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health, Northwestern announced Thursday.

Starting this fall, Feinberg will recruit three graduate students each year through 2016 to study the heath care and emotional needs of the LGBT community, the University said. The program is backed by a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

“This is historic,” Feinberg Prof. Brian Mustanski said in a news release. “It’s one of the first federal grants ever awarded on LGBT health training and the first for a clinical psychology internship.”

Mustanski, director of NU’s IMPACT LGBT Health and Development Program, said there are not enough psychologists for LGBT people, who are more likely to face stress-related health problems than their heterosexual peers.

Feinberg will partner with the Center on Halsted for the internship. The Chicago organization bills itself as the largest community center for LGBT issues in the Midwest.

— Patrick Svitek