The growing youth mental health crisis is colliding with a shortage of behavioral health professionals, particularly pediatric providers.

Approximately six million adolescents had substance use disorder and/or a major depressive episode in 2022. The majority of adolescents who needed substance use treatment did not receive it (60 percent), and nearly half of adolescents with a major depressive episode did not receive treatment.^[1] There are many factors limiting access to care for young people, but one is the lack of available and accessible providers trained to treat youth mental health and substance use disorders.

Over 122 million Americans live in mental health professional shortage areas.^[2] Many factors contribute to the overall behavioral health workforce shortage, including the high cost of schooling, low reimbursement rates, burdensome insurance requirements, the lack of support services for providers and higher intensity services for them to refer, etc. In many cases, the pediatric behavioral health workforce is even more limited. Some existing pediatric providers lack the necessary education and training to provide behavioral health services to their patients, and providers that do provide such services may be limited to certain geographic areas, only take certain types of payment/insurance, and/or lack cultural or linguistic competency for certain patient populations.

Pediatric providers are particularly critical because many mental health symptoms and substance use often start in adolescence, and untreated mental illness in youth and early initiation of substance use can lead to worsening addiction and mental health problems. Bolstering the pediatric behavioral health workforce is critical for addressing the existing youth mental health crisis and for preventing future mental health and addiction crises.

The Strengthening our Pediatric Mental Health Workforce Act would issue guidance to states on strategies under Medicaid to:

• Increase the education, training, recruitment, and retention of pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and other pediatric behavioral health providers;
• Improve the capacity of pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and other pediatric behavioral health providers that serve populations with limited English proficiency;
• Recruit, retain, and expand the capacity of pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and other pediatric behavioral health providers that practice in rural and underserved areas;
• Increase the recruitment and retention of racial and ethnic minorities in the pediatric behavioral health workforce;
• Promote and implement models and programs to support pediatric behavioral health providers in Medicaid, including integrated care models, primary care behavioral health models, collaborative care models, pediatric mental health care telehealth access programs, and consultation with and training of other professionals and community organizations engaged in pediatric behavioral health services; and
• Improve provider participation in Medicaid through incentive strategies such as increased reimbursement, scholarships, and student loan repayment programs, and support the needs of pediatric behavioral health providers in Medicaid to reduce turnover and burnout.

Send the letter below to your members of Congress encouraging them to support the Strengthening Our Pediatric Mental Health Workforce Act to ensure children are able to access needed behavioral health services.