Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released a new report, “Creating a Robust, Diverse, and Resilient Behavioral Health Workforce in Massachusetts.” It describes challenges that have put the behavioral health workforce in Massachusetts in crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prevalence of behavioral health issues and demand for services, exposing and aggravating the vulnerabilities of Massachusetts’ behavioral health workforce and delivery system. Health care, including behavioral health care, has been among the industries hardest hit by the “Great Resignation,” exacerbating workforce shortages that predated the pandemic. These dynamics create an unprecedented call to action for Massachusetts to grow and support a workforce that can meet the pressing demand for behavioral health care in the Commonwealth.
Creating a more robust, diverse, and resilient behavioral health workforce in Massachusetts will require prioritization of the behavioral health workforce crisis by the incoming Governor and policymakers, a focus on equity in all aspects of behavioral health workforce planning and policy development, a shared commitment to this issue across a wide range of stakeholders, and reallocation of health care funding to behavioral health care services. To achieve this vision, this report outlines seven recommendations.
Each recommendation is supported by:
- a description of efforts stakeholders in the Commonwealth have implemented to address the problem to date
- examples from around the country of potential programmatic or policy solutions to address this problem
- actionable steps the Commonwealth and its partners can take to implement the recommendation.
Contact: 617.246.6783.
Contact: info@convergencepartnership.org.