WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new report has highlighted a growing shortage of mental health professionals across the United States, raising concerns about access to care for millions of people.
The report, titled The Workforce Report: Bridging the Mental Health Care Gap, was released by Inseparable, a mental health advocacy group. It points to a nationwide shortage of mental health workers, which the group says is partly driven by lower wages for mental health professionals compared with other medical specialties.
According to the report, South Carolina is experiencing moderate workforce shortages across several parts of its mental health system, including state psychiatric facilities, crisis response services and community mental health providers. These findings align with data released in December by KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that the state meets only about 31 percent of its mental health care needs.
The Inseparable report also highlights significant pay disparities. In South Carolina, mental health providers earn about 60 cents for every dollar earned by physicians and surgeons in the state. The report suggests that this pay gap may be pushing patients to seek care outside their insurance networks at a much higher rate, about 3.3 times more often than patients seeking medical or surgical care.
The workforce shortage is even more pronounced in Maine. Based on the number of licensed psychiatrists in the state, Maine is currently meeting only about 14.4 percent of the demand for mental health services. Compared with other states in the New England region, patients in Maine face greater difficulty accessing psychiatric care.
Pay differences may also be contributing to the problem. According to the report, psychiatrists in Maine earn about 76 cents for every dollar earned by medical clinicians, while therapists earn roughly 63 cents for every dollar made by physician assistants.
In New Jersey, the shortage is similarly severe. The state currently has only about 52.3 percent of the psychiatrists needed to serve its population of roughly 9.5 million residents. More than 1.3 million people in New Jersey have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, yet the existing system lacks the capacity to adequately support them.
The shortage extends beyond psychiatrists. According to Inseparable's analysis of federal workforce data, psychiatric hospitals, crisis response systems and community mental health providers across the state are all struggling with staffing shortages. In some cases, the lack of personnel has reduced the number of available hospital beds and limited the services these facilities can provide.
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