This website is being reviewed for updates. Some information is offline. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Behavioral health workforce

Tennessee Uninsured Adult Healthcare Safety Net: 2024 Annual Report
Reports on Tennessee's uninsured population, state safety net funding, and services provided in 2024. Lists safety net service locations, including community and faith-based clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, dental clinics, and more. Provides county-by-county data on primary, oral, and specialty care population-to-provider ratios, and includes county-level maps of Health Resource Shortage Areas. Mentions rural throughout.
Date: 01/2025
Sponsoring organization: Tennessee Department of Health
view details
Addressing Workforce Challenges Across the Behavioral Health Continuum of Care: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summary of presentations and discussions from a July 2024 public workshop to address workforce needs and challenges related to behavioral healthcare. Includes discussions of telepsychiatry collaborative care to improve rural access and capacity, and recruiting and retaining Native American healthcare providers in behavioral health settings.
Author(s): Board on Health Care Services
Date: 2025
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
Health Information Technology Adoption and Utilization in Behavioral Health Settings
Explores the adoption and use of health information technology (HIT) among behavioral health providers. Presents findings from a literature review and focus group interviews regarding digital strategies that support integrated care models between physical health and behavioral health. Discusses how a lagging adoption and interoperability of HIT may affect community-based behavioral health providers working with underserved populations. Identifies policy considerations to increase interoperable HIT use among behavioral health providers. Includes rural references throughout.
Author(s): Michelle Dougherty, Rebecca McGavin, Meagan Pilar, Marc Horvath, Stephen Brown
Date: 12/2024
Sponsoring organizations: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, RTI International
view details
Wait Time Standards for Behavioral Health Network Adequacy
Presents findings from an environmental scan, key informant interviews, and case studies exploring efforts to measure and monitor provider networks through wait time standards. Describes how wait time standards can vary by provider type, service type, patient characteristics, and geographic region. Discusses challenges faced by state regulators in setting such standards. Includes rural references throughout.
Author(s): Anna Sommers, Elysha Theis, Kenneth Fassel, Brent Gibbons, Miku Fujita
Date: 11/2024
Sponsoring organizations: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, RTI International
view details
Identifying Factors Associated with Variation in Telemental Health Delivery at Federally Qualified Health Centers
Examines telemental health delivery at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across the U.S. Analyzes 1,270 FQHCs and their telemental appointments in 2021 and provides statistics according to mental health staffing, rurality of FQHC, state, and patient population descriptors, including age, race/ethnicity, and insurance status.
Author(s): Brianna Lombardi, Connor Sullivan, Maria Gaiser, et al.
Citation: Journal of Primary Care & Community Health
Date: 11/2024
view details
State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, 2024
Offers demographic and occupational data on the behavioral health workforce including current and projected shortages. Data sources include both 2022 and 2023. Offers comparisons of shortages between rural and urban counties. Discusses challenges driving workforce shortages.
Date: 11/2024
Sponsoring organizations: Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
view details
2022 Indiana Behavioral Health Workforce Report Series - Indiana Psychologists
Provides an overview of the psychology workforce in Indiana based on 2022 license renewal data. Provides statistics on active licenses, employment and practice location, demographics and education levels, employment characteristics and specialties, populations served, and workforce capacity by county.
Additional links: 2022 Indiana Psychologist Workforce Brief, Indiana's Psychologist Workforce Demand
Author(s): Yan Ge, Sierra Vaughn
Date: 10/2024
Sponsoring organization: Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy
view details
Health Care Workforce: Key Issues, Challenges, and the Path Forward
Provides an overview of the supply and distribution of physicians, nurses, direct care workers, behavioral health workers, and oral healthcare providers. Describes persistent challenges related to the healthcare workforce, including supply and distribution of healthcare workers, especially in rural communities; racial and ethnic diversity; burnout; compensation; and administrative burden. Identifies opportunities to address these challenges and efforts supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to address these issues.
Date: 10/2024
Sponsoring organization: HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
view details
Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages (ACICBL) Meeting Minutes, September 6, 2024
Summarizes the Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages (ACICBL) meeting held on September 6, 2024. Includes updates from the Bureau of Health Workforce and anticipated notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs). Features a presentation on Behavioral Health Education, Retention, and Expansion Network of Nevada (BeHERENV), a workforce development initiative to increase the number of behavioral health care providers in Nevada.
Date: 09/2024
Sponsoring organization: Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Community-Based Linkages
view details
Challenges and Opportunities in Rural Health Care: Chelsea Lensing
A video recording of a podcast episode that discusses mental healthcare access in rural Iowa. Features Chelsea Lensing, economics professor at Coe College in Iowa, who studies disparities in healthcare access in rural versus urban populations. Transcript available below video.
Author(s): Paul Yeager, Chelsea Lensing
Date: 09/2024
Sponsoring organization: Iowa PBS
view details