Needs of mental health providers

The purpose of this study is to explore the availability of mental health care providers in two urban counties. The need to care for the mentally ill has risen nationally over the last decades. According to SAMHSA reports, there were only about half of a million health care professionals to meet the needs of a population almost 400 times the amount. Poverty and geographic locations also contribute to difficulty in accessing health services. As the issue of adequate and available health care provision rises nationally, it is essential to examine if locally the state of Georgia has met the needs of its mentally disabled.

Data sources include US census data, local health care provider data sets and the US Census data is used to identify individuals in poverty and/or disabled as a proxy for needing mental health care. The census tracts are used to compute ratio of mental health providers and population in the area to determinate level of accessibility to mental health services. The results of this study will be presented and discussed. Results of this study can provide insight for health administrators, health policymakers to determine the needs of recruiting qualified mental health care providers for the shortage areas, and for health educators to rethink about expanding the education programs to recruit and produce more mental health care providers based on the community needs.