As demand for mental health treatment continues to increase, local providers are struggling to staff the professionals they need.
Mental Health Partners, a nonprofit mental health provider in Boulder and Broomfield counties, has seen the impact firsthand. Senior Recruiter Jon Drogheo said the organization currently has 82 openings, including 20 for therapist positions.
While Mental Health Partners sees an average of about 220 job applications a month, three months into the year Drogheo had seen just 75 for therapist positions.
“For the therapists, we’ve just seen a decline in applicants,” he said.
While Boulder County does not meet the federal definition of a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area, 2.8 million Coloradans do live in areas designated to be lacking enough mental health professionals — places with a population to provider ratio of more than 30,000 to one.
According to the American Psychological Association, six in 10 mental health practitioners reported they no longer have openings for new patients, while nearly half said they have been unable to meet demand for treatment.
About a third of U.S. adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in June 2022, significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
However, Drogheo said the decline in mental health professionals started even before the pandemic started increasing demand for mental health services.
“Pre-COVID, we pretty much … really took all available candidates and there were more openings than there were people to fill them,” he said. “I think that’s still the case. COVID had a pretty big impact on the potential applicant pool. With the increased need that most centers are experiencing, there’s not enough people to fill them. There’s just not.”
Across all professions, Colorado’s unemployment rate is under 3%, and Drogheo believes that is likely even lower in the health care industry. He estimates that there are just under 10,000 therapists in the Denver metro area, but the vast majority are employed and established with more than five years of experience.
He’s seeing next to zero therapists with less than two years of experience.
“There’s nobody on the entry-level aspects — that pipeline is very, very small,” he said, adding that college and masters enrollment in mental health-related fields is down across the board.
With pay and benefits pretty similar across providers in the region, Mental Health Partners focuses on marketing its culture to potential employees and recruiting at local universities. Drogheo said the organization is also looking at expanding its internship program, offering more experience in the hope of bringing interns on as eventual employees.
Mental Health Partners has hired 51 therapists in the last year, and Drogheo did note they’re seeing fewer vacancies overall than their nearest competitors.
The shortage of mental health workers doesn’t seem like it will be resolved soon, with the U.S. expected to be short between 14,280 and 31,109 psychiatrists in the next few years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
