‘We’re exhausted’: Bay Area mental health shortage deepens as need explodes
San Jose Mercury NewsMar 24, 2024
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Velasquez is tasked with leading therapy groups and one-on-one patient sessions, but too often she’s also scrambling to respond to emergencies on the floor of the inpatient mental health hospital. One patient might be trying to harm themself, while another might need help calming a manic episode.
“We witness things that you might see in a movie, things that someone might say are extreme or just unbearable to even witness,” the 34-year-old Velasquez said.
Across the
“Counselors definitely feel a huge burnout,” Velasquez said. “We’re exhausted.”
Mental health care providers say the exodus is deepening a longstanding shortage of psychiatrists, social workers, drug counselors and other mental health and addiction professionals as the need has exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is already a pretty fragile, brittle existing workforce,” said
How the region responds to the shortage could be crucial to confronting many of its most dire post-pandemic challenges, as many residents continue grappling with the lasting effects of social isolation, financial insecurity and grief.
Studies show children and young adults have experienced heightened rates of anxiety and depression. Overdose deaths have spiked. And thousands of people with serious psychiatric disorders continue languishing on the streets across
“With the pandemic, it was followed by a behavioral health tsunami or crisis, where there was just a lot more need,” said
Even so, the
There’s broad agreement, however, that county health agencies and community nonprofits like Momentum — the groups most often treating the region’s most vulnerable patients — face the greatest struggle in hiring and retaining workers.
“I hear lots of anecdotes about people burning out, particularly in what we might call safety net behavioral health,” said
A UCSF survey by Coffman last year found more than 70% of California’s county behavioral health agencies were struggling to hire psychiatrists, clinical social workers, registered nurses and many other types of mental health workers.
A separate report by Coffman from 2018 — before the pandemic sent need soaring — predicted that if all types of providers are unable to hire more workers in the next few years, the demand for psychiatrists could be 50% higher than the supply, while the shortfall of psychologists and other therapists could reach 28%.
For the nonprofit Abode, which provides housing, mental health and addiction services to homeless people across the
“The affordability of housing, affordability of food, affordability to live, and the nation’s standard of pay for this work,” said
In the
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To keep more mental health workers in the region, providers want to continue the expansion of state and local workforce development programs, particularly student scholarships and loan repayment plans.
Proposition 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s narrowly passed
“There’s so much benefit,” she said, “to feeling a greater sense of belonging.”
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