Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, more people have sought treatment for behavioral health disorders, adding to the nation’s historic deficit of mental healthcare providers and becoming a source of increasing worry.
Vice president of marketing and communication at Diversus Health, which bills itself as the sole provider of community behavioral health care in El Paso County, reported that during the period from July 2020 to March 23 alone, 14,121 clients were diagnosed with varied mental issues.
Since the pandemic started, patients have logged onto online conferencing software to remotely conduct most of their consultations with clinicians. However, even though telehealth has frequently maintained accessible services, Diversus has continued to be at capacity.
The patients have been fairly at ease and confident with this virtual kind of space, and we have been able to utilize our access center staff and operations staff pretty well to educate patients and support them, as they are learning how to access this new model of healthcare, said Jessica Kell, a chief clinical officer at Diversus. Also, as yet, the industry is not well equipped for the sudden spike in service demand.
Although the latter has suffered from the lowest provider-to-patient ratio in most of the country, the United States has long struggled with a shortage of primary, dental, and mental health care professionals.
More than 115 million Americans live in places with a mental health practitioner-to-resident ratio of less than one for every 30,000 citizens, according to the SAMHS (Substances Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), a little less than half of Colorado’s population, or more than 2.5 million people, dwell in regions with a vastly greater need for mental health care than there are clinical experts who can provide it.
According to a news organization investigating national health concerns, Colorado’s present need for mental health care has only overseen roughly 31% of the total requirement.
The largest mental health care provider in southern Colorado, according to Diversus, has 197 patient-facing staff members, including 137 licensed clinicians. However, it is also one of many nationwide institutions whose workforce is shrinking as clinicians start to retire and fewer students enroll in a field that receives lower insurance reimbursement rates than, for instance, primary caregivers.
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According to Dr. Imad Melhem, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at Diversus, historically, mental health issues have been largely ignored. Up until now, you could have assumed that the payment rates for professionals in the mental health field would be competitive, with those in other medical disciplines. In addition, there aren’t often many incentives for people in the medical field to pursue careers in mental health, owing to the field’s challenges and the danger of burnout among its workforce.
Since 2001, payment rates for those who provide mental health services have been continuously declining. According to the American Psychological Association. At that time, Medicare decreased the amount it would typically pay for a psychotherapy session from $102 to $84.74.
According to Kell, the nationwide transition to remote work models has also made it simpler for clinicians at community mental health providers, like Diversus, to quit their positions for other positions in the healthcare industry that provide higher wages, compounding the patient access problem.
He further stated that, due to increased opportunities in the market for clinicians to work from anywhere at any time, “it’s a combination of employee turnover and demand for access.” The market for those providers is competitive, so our staff members take advantage of these opportunities when presented with a better offer than working for a community mental health center. Because of this, we’ve seen increased demand in one area and a drop in personnel in another. If there is a problem with access, it’s due to increased patients.
Melhem claimed that as a result, individuals may go up to 10 years without receiving a mental health condition diagnosis or treatment. A shortage of 15,400 psychiatrists, 10,470 marriage and family therapists, 26,930 mental health counselors, 48,540 social workers, 57,490 psychologists, and 78,050 school counselors is predicted to occur in the United States by 2025, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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