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Nebraska's rural behavioral healthcare workforce distribution and relationship between supply and county characteristics
- Source :
- Rural and Remote Health.
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Rural and Remote Health, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Introduction Specific attention is needed to improve mental health outcomes in rural communities. Rural communities continue to have higher unmet mental health needs than their urban counterparts. Quantifying workforce supply and shortages can aid in identifying areas in need of the recruitment, training, licensure, and retention of behavioral health professionals. However, workforce analyses have presented a challenge as comprehensive workforce data are limited. This study examines the geographic distribution of behavioral healthcare professionals and the relationship between supply and county characteristics in Nebraska in 2012. Methods Practice location data for behavioral healthcare professionals were obtained from the 2012 University of Nebraska Medical Center's Health Profession Tracking Service Survey. Behavioral healthcare professionals included were psychiatric prescribers, independent behavioral professionals, mental health practitioners, and addiction counselors. The rural and urban distribution of professionals was examined using descriptive statistics. The relationships between county-level provider-to-population ratios and county characteristics were examined using multivariate Poisson regression analyses. Results In 2012, there were 2468 behavioral health professionals actively practicing in Nebraska. The majority (71.2%) of all behavioral professionals in Nebraska were actively practicing in metropolitan areas as compared to 27.3% in rural and 1.5% in frontier areas. For all categories of professions, excluding physician assistants, Nebraska's urban areas had the highest ratios of provider to 100 000 population as compared to rural and frontier areas in Nebraska. The total supply of behavioral health professionals was positively associated with metropolitan areas and the percentage of populations in poverty. The total supply of behavioral health professionals was negatively associated with the percentage of children under 18 years of age and the percentage of elderly aged 65 years or older. Conclusions Rural counties and areas with high proportions of children and aging populations in Nebraska face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining behavioral healthcare professionals. The findings from this study have implications for quantifying the need and demand for behavioral healthcare professionals in workforce planning and policy analysis.
- Subjects :
- Emergency Medical Services
medicine.medical_specialty
Health (social science)
040301 veterinary sciences
education
Population
Medicine (miscellaneous)
0403 veterinary science
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Environmental health
medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
Licensure
education.field_of_study
Descriptive statistics
business.industry
Public health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Mental health
Workforce
Needs assessment
Workforce planning
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14456354
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Rural and Remote Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........1431177800df0816a7f914f6f22d48fe