آینده بهداشت رفتاری نیروی کار: خوش بینی و فرصت The Future of the Behavioral Health Workforce: Optimism and Opportunity

ADVANCES IN WORKFORCE PLANNING, PRACTICE, AND PREPARATION Despite the numerous challenges confronted by the behavioral health workforce in providing access to high-quality care, myriad examples exist of advances in workforce planning, development, and service delivery. The Nation’s first Health Workforce Research Center focused on behavioral health, funded jointly by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and HRSA, was established in 2015. The efforts of this Center and its consortium of partners, which represent a varied group of providers and professional organizations engaged in mental health and addiction prevention and treatment, are aimed at conducting research to strengthen workforce capacity. The article by Beck et al.10 summarizes the Center’s work in developing a minimum data set as a foundational step for standardizing the collection of workforce data to inform workforce planning efforts. Two articles by Andrilla and colleagues detail the geographic maldistribution of providers across the U.S.11 and barriers to seeking buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder because of physician prescribing practices,12 whereas Brener et al.13 describe how school district staffing policies related to counseling, psychological, and social services could increase availability of behavioral health services. Findings from these studies frame access to care issues for which careful workforce planning may improve availability of behavioral health services for underserved populations. This issue also includes studies that offer solutions for addressing workforce shortages and reduced capacity through policy development and effective use of human resources. Haffajee and colleagues14 propose policy pathways to address workforce barriers to buprenorphine provision and access and Altschul et al.15 summarize legislation enacted in New Mexico in 2011 to systematically survey all healthcare professionals in an effort to inform policies to address shortage issues. Further, Chapman and colleagues16 discuss the roles of psychiatric mental health nurses, an often underutilized segment of the workforce, in behavioral health care delivery; Gagne et al.17 highlight the benefits of integrating peer workers across service settings; and Au and colleagues18 propose strategies for reducing burnout of care coordinators in integrated care settings.