Our focus on this episode is the behavioral health workforce. More than a third of the U.S. population lives in areas with shortages of psychologists, counselors and social workers, and nearly two-thirds of shortage areas are rural. Those workforce shortages occur during a period when many experts, including those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have concluded we have a mental health crisis. 

Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, indicates that for more than two decades half the people in need of behavioral health services in the U.S. did not receive them. 

Joining the discussion are Karmen Hanson, a senior fellow at NCSL; Brianna Lombardi, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Jeff Shumway, the director of Utah’s Office of Professional Licensure Review.

Lombardi discussed her experiences in researching the workforce shortage and explained some its complexities. Shumway gave a state-level perspective on how regulation can affect the workforce. Hanson broke down the efforts in legislatures to address the workforce issues.

Resources

• Allied Health Professions: Considerations for State Legislatures, NCSL
• Health Workforce Legislation Database, NCSL
• Health Care Workforce Resources, NCSL
• Scope of Practice Policy Database, NCSL