We have been hearing from you about committed, qualified staff who are unable to stay in the field, primarily because of inadequate compensation and unsustainable pressures. Our Outpatient Access Issue Brief validated the alarming experience that members have been relaying – more clinicians are leaving clinics than coming in to be trained.
The brief not only shed public light on exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges that threaten the entire BH system, but also made solution-oriented recommendations, including outpatient clinic rate increases by commercial and public payers, rate parity among providers, and expanded student loan repayment programs to boost recruitment and retention. The brief garnered significant coverage, including the following:
MassLive
The real problem behind mental health clinics in Mass. (guest viewpoint) by Lydia Conley
Licensed community mental health clinics are the backbone of the behavioral health system in Massachusetts. In hundreds of communities statewide, patients get the care they need from a multidisciplinary team of professionals to treat their symptoms and get better.
While these clinics are such a vital piece of behavioral health infrastructure, they are losing the ability to recruit and retain clinicians – resulting in care delayed, and in some cases, care denied.
Boston Globe
Clinicians are leaving their jobs at mental health centers amid rising demand by Felice J. Freyer
The professions who provide care at community mental Health clinics around the state are leaving their positions faster than they can be replaced, worsening access just as the stresses of the pandemic have intensified the need among their mainly lower-income patients, according to a survey released Tuesday.
WBUR
Report finds a 'workforce crisis' is behind long waits for mental health care in Massachusetts by Deborah Becker
A new report suggests a "workforce crisis" is affecting mental health care in Massachusetts, resulting in longer waits for outpatient treatment and fewer people getting care.
The Association for Behavioral Healthcare report released Tuesday said the average wait time in the state for an initial mental health assessment by a licensed clinician is longer than two months. It found that more licensed clinicians are leaving positions than are being hired.
Commonwealth Magazine
124 mental health clinics report 640 job vacancies | As demand for care rises, clinicians treating fewer patients by Shira Schoenberg
LAST WEEK, a survey by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation reported that Massachusetts residents are having trouble accessing mental health care when they need it. A new survey released Tuesday by the Association for Behavioral Health Care sheds some light on why.
Op-ed, Boston Globe
Fund behavioral health clinics to avoid the ER boarding crisis by Lydia Conley
Much has been said recently about the state’s behavioral health boarding crisis: Patients who arrive at a hospital emergency department in crisis can be kept there for days or even weeks waiting for a psychiatric bed to become available.
Rather than addressing only the lack of pediatric and adult psychiatric inpatient beds, policy makers would be wise to strengthen the system’s front end — the behavioral health clinics where patients often first seek treatment before their illness becomes acute. These outpatient sites are beset with a number of challenges, including the most constrained workforce in decades and reimbursement rates, from both public and private health plans, that are inadequate to both retain and recruit clinical staff.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Watch Mental Health Care: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
