Who Will Meet the Growing Demand for Mental Healthcare?

When most people think of community resources, their minds go to schools, hospitals, community centers, and other services that citizens rely on to stay healthy, educated, and connected. However, while the role of mental health in community well-being is often overlooked, mental health professionals are no less an asset than the institutions that form the cornerstones of our communities.

Mental health workers are employed in a variety of settings, including hospitals and clinics, community health centers, schools, correctional facilities, addiction treatment centers, and residential care facilities. There, they work to help people overcome a wide range of challenges. Mental health professionals may aid people in overcoming addictions, improve educational opportunities for students with special needs, counsel couples and co-parents to keep families strong or guide at-risk youth and people with disabilities toward independence.

Unfortunately, many of our communities are underserved when it comes to mental health resources. Over 115 million Americans live in Health Professional Shortage Areas, where there’s fewer than one mental health professional per 30,000 residents. As the Atlantic documents, this shortage leads people with mental illness to end up in prisons instead of care facilities. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, jailing people with mental illness not only strains the system, but it also leads to worse outcomes for people who need treatment.

As demand rises for every category of mental health services, new workers aren’t entering the profession at high enough rates to meet the growing need. By 2025, the US is projected to face a shortage of more than 57,000 psychologists, 78,000 school counselors, 48,000 social workers, and 26,000 mental health counselors.

While these professionals play similar roles in the mental health community, they take different educational paths to get there. Mental health and school counselors require master’s degrees in clinical mental health counseling or school counseling, respectively, while licensed psychologists require a doctoral degree in order to practice. Social workers can earn a degree in social work to prepare themselves for the job, and with online programs, they can affordably develop the skills needed to work with families and communities.

Although these professionals are colloquially referred to as “therapists,” the distinctions between the professions are relevant to community mental health needs. While mental health counselors and clinical social workers provide therapy for a range of mental health challenges, psychologists have more extensive training in dealing with severe mental illness. As such, licensed psychologists play an important role in keeping the nation’s most vulnerable populations out of prisons, emergency rooms, and homeless shelters.

Regardless of a therapist’s credentials, the most important factor in therapeutic success is the relationship the patient has with their mental health provider. That’s why it’s so important that communities not only have access to mental health services but that citizens have a choice when choosing their provider. Whether they access services via private practice, low-cost mental health clinics, or institutions like schools, prisons, and group homes, clients make the most progress when they feel safe and understood. Likewise, this is why it’s imperative that people who enter the mental health profession do so out of a genuine desire to help others.

While the US is a long way from every citizen having access to mental health services, let alone choice in their provider, emphasizing the role of mental health professionals in the community and encouraging students to pursue a career in mental health is the first step in meeting the growing demand. As important as expanding access to health insurance is, putting mental healthcare to action requires an adequate network of professionals ready and willing to meet their community’s mental health needs.

 Article by Micah Norris of king-rom.com

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