TY - JOUR
KW - Databases as Topic
KW - Geography
KW - Health Manpower/statistics & numerical data
KW - Health Services Needs and Demand
KW - Humans
KW - Mental Health Services/manpower
KW - Primary Health Care
KW - Rural Population
KW - United States
KW - Urban Population
AU - K. C. Thomas
AU - A. R. Ellis
AU - T. R. Konrad
AU - C. E. Holzer
AU - J. P. Morrissey
A1 - 
AB - OBJECTIVE: This study examined shortages of mental health professionals at the county level across the United States. A goal was to motivate discussion of the data improvements and practice standards required to develop an adequate mental health professional workforce. METHODS: Shortage of mental health professionals was conceptualized as the percentage of need for mental health visits that is unmet within a county. County-level need was measured by estimating the prevalence of serious mental illness, then combining separate estimates of provider time needed by individuals with and without serious mental illness derived from National Comorbidity Survey Replication, U.S. Census, and Medical Panel Expenditure Survey data. County-level supply data were compiled from professional associations, state licensure boards, and national certification boards. Shortage was measured for prescribers, nonprescribers, and a combination of both groups in the nation's 3,140 counties. Ordinary least-squares regression identified county characteristics associated with shortage. RESULTS: Nearly one in five counties (18%) in the nation had unmet need for nonprescribers. Nearly every county (96%) had unmet need for prescribers and therefore some level of unmet need overall. Rural counties and those with low per capita income had higher levels of unmet need. CONCLUSIONS: These findings identified widespread prescriber shortage and poor distribution of nonprescribers. A caveat is that these estimates of need were extrapolated from current provider treatment patterns rather than from a normative standard of how much care should be provided and by whom. Better data would improve these estimates, but future work needs to move beyond simply describing shortages to resolving them.
BT - Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.)
C5 - Education & Workforce
CP - 10
CY - United States
DO - 10.1176/appi.ps.60.10.1323
IS - 10
JF - Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.)
N2 - OBJECTIVE: This study examined shortages of mental health professionals at the county level across the United States. A goal was to motivate discussion of the data improvements and practice standards required to develop an adequate mental health professional workforce. METHODS: Shortage of mental health professionals was conceptualized as the percentage of need for mental health visits that is unmet within a county. County-level need was measured by estimating the prevalence of serious mental illness, then combining separate estimates of provider time needed by individuals with and without serious mental illness derived from National Comorbidity Survey Replication, U.S. Census, and Medical Panel Expenditure Survey data. County-level supply data were compiled from professional associations, state licensure boards, and national certification boards. Shortage was measured for prescribers, nonprescribers, and a combination of both groups in the nation's 3,140 counties. Ordinary least-squares regression identified county characteristics associated with shortage. RESULTS: Nearly one in five counties (18%) in the nation had unmet need for nonprescribers. Nearly every county (96%) had unmet need for prescribers and therefore some level of unmet need overall. Rural counties and those with low per capita income had higher levels of unmet need. CONCLUSIONS: These findings identified widespread prescriber shortage and poor distribution of nonprescribers. A caveat is that these estimates of need were extrapolated from current provider treatment patterns rather than from a normative standard of how much care should be provided and by whom. Better data would improve these estimates, but future work needs to move beyond simply describing shortages to resolving them.
PP - United States
PY - 2009
SN - 1557-9700; 1075-2730
SP - 1323
EP - 1328
EP - 
T1 - County-level estimates of mental health professional shortage in the United States
T2 - Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.)
TI - County-level estimates of mental health professional shortage in the United States
U1 - Education & Workforce
U2 - 19797371
U3 - 10.1176/appi.ps.60.10.1323
VL - 60
VO - 1557-9700; 1075-2730
Y1 - 2009
ER -