The average American who develops a mental health condition waits around 11 years before receiving any treatment. This figure has barely changed for many years, despite growing media coverage raising awareness and the expansion of mental health benefits in insurance coverage. Cost, the difficulty in recognizing a problem, and stigma all play a part in that delay, but for a great number of people, the obstacle is that they live somewhere where there is a shortage of mental health providers.
Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas
More than 7,500 communities across the country now fall under the definition of Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, marking where demand for mental health support has outpaced supply and making residents eligible for certain funding and workforce programs. The South and rural West areas carry much of the burden, with Mississippi, Alabama, and Wyoming consistently ranking among the states with the fewest mental health providers per person.
Texas stands out as a particularly grim example of this, as despite having one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S., it contains some of the most underserved areas anywhere in the country. In the western part of the state and the Panhandle, the nearest psychiatrist can be a two- or three-hour drive away, which becomes a real obstacle for anyone without reliable transport or the ability to take time off work.
Impact on Communities
Across much of Appalachia, communities in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee have experienced decades of economic decline and the effects of the opioid epidemic and also rank among the most underserved areas for access to mental health care. These pressures have an impact on one another, as the same conditions that cause higher rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders exist alongside a limited supply of clinicians able to treat them.
Some primary care practices have approached the problem from a different angle, by building mental health support into the care they are already delivering so that patients don’t have to join a specialist waitlist. One of these is the Collaborative Care Model, which introduces a care manager and a consulting psychiatrist into the patient’s care alongside their usual primary care provider.
Federal programs have been introduced to try to drive more graduates toward the places that need them, most notably through the National Health Service Corps, which repays student loans for clinicians who commit to working in one of the areas defined as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area for a set number of years.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
