San Diego County launches effort to ease mental health worker shortage
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
San Diego County is launching five new behavioral health workforce programs to address the shortage of professionals in the field.
Why it matters: The worker shortage limits residents' access to mental health and substance use services during a crisis, particularly for children and the homeless.
- "People aren't getting the care they need when they need it," Stephanie Gioia-Beckman, who's leading the workforce initiative, told Axios.
Driving the news: The county is investing $75 million from the state over five years to fund the Elevate initiative, which was approved in 2023 and will be managed by the Policy and Innovation Center, a local nonprofit.
- The programs offer zero-interest loans, apprenticeships, peer support training, paid internships and nurse practitioner expansion programs.
Between the lines: Without proper staffing, the county's behavioral health system, which serves the most vulnerable residents, can't currently meet the demand for services, according to Gioia-Beckman.
- Some people are waiting up to six months for care, exacerbating the crisis they're in, she said.
- "That's where we see people in the hospital; that's how we see really high suicide rates," she said.
By the numbers: The San Diego region needs to more than double its behavioral health workforce by 2027 to meet demand, which means adding 18,500 practitioners, according to a 2022 report.
- Elevate aims to attract 3,000 new behavioral health workers over the next five years, including substance use disorder counselors, licensed clinicians and psychiatric nurse practitioners.
State of play: As local organizations and the county expand mental health care and substance use treatment facilities, the need for professionals also increases.
- The San Diego Foundation is providing workforce development grants, and a new state scholarship program also supports students pursuing these careers.
Zoom out: In 2019, the California Future Health Workforce Commission warned of a "severe and growing" shortage in the field, and since then, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have allocated more than $1 billion to train and recruit providers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
- The shortage has worsened since the pandemic, and workers are "buckling under the workload" while patients in crisis are "turning to costly emergency care," per the LA Times.
Students say the expensive years-long training and education required to become a mental health professional makes it difficult to pursue a career, especially in high cost of living areas such as San Diego.
The bottom line: These Elevate programs are meant to ease that burden and keep "people tethered to San Diego and this medical system," Gioia-Beckman said.