Amid a growing behavioral health crisis in the US, less than half of individuals who need services for mental health or substance use concerns receive care. Multiple factors impact access to behavioral health services, including payment, stigma, and the availability of a positioned behavioral health workforce in areas with the greatest need. Recent work demonstrates…
This webinar featured two health workforce training experts who shared best practice strategies for approaching workforce training program evaluation, navigating evaluation success and challenges, and student training experiences. Their experiences along with viewer feedback will inform development of the Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center’s evaluation resources for health workforce training programs across the country.ArrayJuly 10,…
Providing behavioral health to inmates with mental health and substance abuse disorders in correctional facilities is important for helping to maintain a safe prison environment and reducing rates of recidivism once those inmates transition out of the prison system. However, due to behavioral health workforce shortages and other factors, most prisoners do not receive adequate…
A Health Resources and Services Administration report stated that 77% of US counties experienced severe psychiatrist shortages in 2017, and yet 1 in 5 American adults experience a mental illness in a given year. There is a pressing need to map the supply of prescribing psychiatric workforce. This report maps the supply of psychiatrists, advanced…
The field of behavioral health is experiencing a shortfall of licensed providers. Community health workers (CHWs) and peer recovery specialists (PRSs) function as critical components of the workforce that can mitigate access and treatment gaps. Increasing demand for behavioral health services, exacerbated by the ongoing opioid epidemic, has intensified the need for addiction counselors (ACs),…
After the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, behavioral health coverage has expanded to cover more US citizens. However, access to behavioral health services remains an issue, owing in part to maldistribution of the workforce. The psychiatric workforce, in particular, is in the middle of a…
Currently, around 47.6 million Americans are living with a mental illness and 20.3 million adults are living with a substance use disorder (SUD). In 2016, only 43% (20.6 million) of adults living with any mental illness received mental health (MH) care, and only 3.7 million adults (18.2%) living with an SUD received any treatment. Peer…
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been shown to be effective for treating opioid use disorders (OUDs), but implementation is lagging, particularly in rural areas. Telehealth may be an effective solution for helping to make MAT more accessible for patients suffering from OUDs in geographically remote areas. This report described a study that utilized geospatial analysis and…
Novel approaches to providing access to behavioral health care, like collaborative care and integrated behavioral health primary and social care models, have shown short and long-term positive patient and family outcomes in frontier, rural, and urban communities. These approaches are complex and rely upon coordination, systems-based management, efficient communications, team and community relationships, and virtual…
The psychiatric workforce shortage remains a serious issue in the field of behavioral health. In 2018, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designated 5,124 mental health professional shortage areas in the United States. Demand for the psychiatry workforce is projected to exceed the supply by 16,450 workers by 2030. Studies continue to show that…
