The way we think about the behavioral health workforce is too limited. We need to expand it.
If building the workforce involves only licensed, clinically trained professionals, we are advocating for a limited solution that will not achieve the outcomes we are striving for. Licensed providers offer critical skills necessary for the treatment of behavioral health conditions—and we should continue to make investments there.
We must also recognize the need for other strategies and skill sets, as Providers predict longer wait times for mental health services describes. Our approach to behavioral health should be focused on psychological health and well-being for the entire population—not just those who have crossed the diagnostic threshold—as suggested by APA’s population health policy. By doing this, we will better address the needs of those with diagnosable conditions because of the greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention.
This has implications for both what we do and who does it. Much of the behavioral health need falls below the diagnostic threshold and could benefit from nonclinical preventative interventions. Successfully addressing various levels of need requires different solutions, only some of which require psychologists or other licensed professionals.
Enlisting others who can help improve the behavioral health of people using psychological science allows us to expand the behavioral health workforce and improve more lives.
- We must emphasize the breadth of skills that psychological training provides, including from nonclinical areas of the field, with many interventions requiring knowledge from basic and applied psychology.
- We should use psychological science to improve people’s environments. For example, efforts to improve school climate and create psychologically healthy workplaces can be developed by psychologists but delivered by educators and managers. We need to educate teachers, managers, law enforcement officers, and community leaders with psychological knowledge and skills to empower them to promote and protect people’s behavioral health every day.
- We should also help communities promote health activation—people’s ability and willingness to manage and improve their behavioral health.
As policymakers and others consider how to increase the workforce, it will be important for us to advocate for a broad conceptualization that reframes what it means to help people achieve psychological health.
