Demand -- for both facilities and providers -- has long outpaced supply in the field of mental health, but recent moves to increase funding for mental health services combined with innovative delivery systems may reverse that trend.
In December, to mark the 1-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, Vice President Joe Biden announced the executive branch would invest $100 million in the nation's mental health system. Biden said the funds would be used to expand mental health services at community health centers and in rural America.
Biden's announcement was welcome news since the American Psychiatric Association estimates that in 2015 the nation will face a shortage of 22,000 child psychiatrists and 2,900 geriatric psychiatrists, and many of them are aging out of the profession according to the National Institute of Mental Health website, which notes that 55% of all psychiatrists are older than 55.
Since there are currently 1,360 psychiatric residency spots in the U.S., increasing psychiatric residency spots is not the answer to this problem, explained Richard Summers, MD, co-director of the psychiatric residency program at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
The Primary Solution
Summers thinks primary care providers (PCPs) are a big part of the answer because they are often the first, sometimes only, physicians to diagnose and treat a patient's mental illness.
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Posted By: Jen Fad
Saturday, February 8th 2014 at 10:05AM
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