The shortages are even more acute in certain regions of the country. Nearly 3 million Americans Live in areas that are lacking both healthy health establishments and high speed internet. Without broadband internet, telehealth is not a care option.
The resolution of the shortage of labor is not as simple as hiring more people or using technology to take advantage of existing clinicians. Indeed, shortages exist for a number of reasons, in particular:
- High cost and time required to complete health care studies programs
- The time commitment required to become fully authorized, especially in the field of mental health
- Limited space in existing educational programs to accommodate more students
- The professional exhaustion which led to more resignation (on 35% of health workers say they feel exhausted))
- Many current health professionals reaching retirement age
Meet training needs
At Kaiser Permanent, we support the possibilities of clinical training and training to deal with the shortage of health care.
We focus on the high cost of education and the extensive time commitment necessary to become entirely authorized. Our objectives are:
- Bring more professionals to roles of health care where they most need
- Help qualified professionals to enter the field as quickly as possible
We have created schools and programs to help us achieve these goals.
We also have programs specifically for the field of mental health.
- THE Mental health researchers academy Provides financial assistance and training to Kaiser Permanent employees who wish to become mental health therapists, advisers or social workers.
- THE Mental health workforce Remove obstacles to license granting for students in terms of master’s degree and graduates. The programs offer employee allowances, clinical supervision options and locations during the license process.
- The associate program of the Mental Health Post-Health helps mental health graduates to obtain the supervised clinical hours they need to obtain a license to practice.
These programs make a difference. But the shortage of labor is a problem greater than a single organization can solve. We need the support of political leaders.
How decision -makers can help
To help resolve the shortage of health workers, the heads of politics must:
- Expand and reform graduate medical studies to train more health professionals in the most necessary areas, such as primary care, psychiatry and drug addiction medicine
- Support programs that offer assistance to tuition fees, forgiveness for loan, scholarships and allowances in the health areas on demand
- Support programs that help mental health graduates obtain supervised clinical practice required for license to grant
- Promote the effective use of Community Health Agents and peer support specialists
- Remove obstacles to telehealth and support the safe use of virtual care through state lines, so that more people can get the care they need, no matter where they live
- Invest in team care and integrated to create efficiency and prevent professional exhaustion
- Rationalize license requirements, in particular mental health, to prevent therapists from being subject to different requirements in different states
We threw a more in -depth overview of the issue of granting licenses during our Recent Kaiser Permanent Institute for Health Policy Forum.
Policy changes like these can guarantee that the United States has enough health workers to take care of all patients-now and in the future.