Transforming the Youth Mental Health Workforce

Youth mental health problems have increased dramatically in the past decade, whereas the availability of mental health providers has not. This workforce shortage reflects complex dynamics that make it difficult to increase the supply of providers through existing graduate-training pipelines. Task shifting involves transferring the delivery of healthcare services to providers with less specialized training and is one strategy with potential for growing the behavioral health workforce. Here we review evidence that nonspecialist providers can effectively deliver behavioral health services and argue that a bachelor’s-level mental health profession with standardized training in evidence-based practices may be a solution to growing workforce shortages. We describe the undergraduate program at the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health as a model for how to grow the youth behavioral health workforce through the creation of a bachelor’s-level profession with a scope of practice emphasizing the early identification and prevention of mental health problems. The replication of this program at other universities is underway alongside program evaluation and policy work to create the credentialing and billing mechanisms needed to support sustainable employment pathways for a new profession. We invite partnership with universities interested in joining the movement to create a coordinated workforce development solution to the youth mental health crisis.