Oklahoma will soon be adding hundreds more psychiatric beds for adults and children in need, the result of the state’s impressive momentum to increase access to mental health services.
In Oklahoma City, construction is underway on a new state mental health hospital, Donahue Behavioral Health Hospital, and OU Health is building a new Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health on the campus of Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma. In Tulsa, access to treatment will further expand with the new Oklahoma Psychiatric Center and expansions of Laureate Psychiatric Hospital and Parkside Psychiatric Hospital.
more:Oklahoma announces construction of 330-bed psychiatric hospital in Oklahoma City
These important investments by lawmakers and private funders will expand access to care and close gaps in Oklahoma’s mental health system. But there’s no escaping the reality that we need clinicians to staff these beds. What’s more, we need doctors to provide mental health care early enough that we don’t need a bed at all.
Health care providers report every day that mental health beds across the state are empty simply because there aren’t enough clinicians. And every day, Oklahomans find themselves having to wait months to see a therapist, even if they can find one.
Oklahoma ranks 47th in the nation with 94% of residents living in areas with a mental health provider shortage. These shortages are most pronounced in rural areas and among health care providers with the highest level of training, such as Oklahoma’s supply of psychologists meeting only 37% of demand and psychiatrists meeting only 39%. . A shortage of health care providers is making it difficult for Oklahomans to receive care. In 2023, 53% of Oklahomans with a mental illness are not receiving treatment, and 26% of those seeking care report not being able to receive it. If you’ve ever struggled to find a mental health provider or faced long wait times to get an appointment, you’ve felt the impact of these shortages firsthand.
A recent Healthy Minds Policy Initiative study of the current state of Oklahoma’s behavioral health workforce found significant deficiencies in the training pipeline, including a lack of adequate psychiatry training and internships for psychologists in training. It turns out that there is something. Without sufficient opportunities for students to complete their training in-state, Oklahoma will lose desperately needed clinicians who would choose to study and practice elsewhere. To strengthen these pipelines, Healthy Minds and its partners are advancing her $36.8 million investment to solve long-standing challenges facing the state’s behavioral health workforce.
This funding package is a significant opportunity for the state of Oklahoma. Not only will generations of Oklahomans have access to the mental health and substance use treatment they need, they will also reap the economic benefits of growing the behavioral health workforce. This one-time investment will create more than 500 jobs and contribute $96.5 million to the state’s economy by 2037, according to an analysis conducted by Healthy Minds and the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
Hundreds of new behavioral health providers added to the workforce in the proposed funding package will provide evidence-based mental health treatment to more than 1 million more people in the coming decades This would result in a $1.8 billion taxpayer benefit to Oklahomans.
These numbers represent the immeasurable, tangible benefits of ensuring more Oklahomans have access to the mental health care they need. Our calculations take into account not only the reduction in spending on more expensive treatment facilities such as hospitals and prisons, but also the potential increase in income and spending power that people have when they are in good mental health. I am.
Congress is currently considering funding the package as part of the state’s budget and appropriations process. The proposed budget, based on Healthy Minds research and recommendations, would add training and internship slots for psychiatrists and psychologists, strengthening the pipeline for future behavioral health professionals. become. The package also funds scholarships for social workers and advanced psychiatric nurses, loan repayment programs, and grants to foster private sector innovation around the growth and retention of Oklahoma’s behavioral health workforce. We plan to provide it.
By making this transformative investment, lawmakers can build on Oklahoma’s mental health momentum. The new psychiatric hospital under construction will not only add much-needed beds and treatment opportunities in the state, but will also serve as a training ground for emerging professionals in the behavioral health field and provide future Provide more training slots to prepare psychiatrists.
Oklahoma needs the workforce needed to staff these new facilities. Now is the perfect time to invest in the strong behavioral health workforce that these infrastructure improvements need and that Oklahomans across our state deserve.
Zach Stoikoff is executive director of the Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization that promotes policy changes and community collaboration to increase access to mental health care for Oklahomans.
