San Diego needs to double behavioral health workforce by 2027, report finds

Charges of substance abuse and psychological misery are in growing in San Diego County. On the identical time, the area is going through a scarcity of behavioral well being employees.

A brand new report from the San Diego Workforce Partnership revealed the area must greater than double the behavioral well being workforce by 2027.

“Over the subsequent 5 years we have to recruit extra folks … at the moment work on this discipline —that’s a really, very tall order,” stated Daniel Enemark, chief economist on the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

Along with reviewing publicly-available information, 1,600 behavioral well being employees and college students have been surveyed for the report. Outcomes discovered nearly all of jobs within the discipline are underpaying.

Enemark introduced the report’s findings to native suppliers throughout a current behavioral well being symposium.

“It is a downside,” he stated. “We will’t recruit and retain folks if we’re not paying them.”

Officers estimate between the non-public, public and nonprofit sector there are at the moment 17,000 behavioral well being employees to serve a county of greater than 3 million folks.

“The present behavioral well being workforce is assembly loads of the necessity however not all of it,” Enemark stated.

Based on the Workforce Partnership, to satisfy the rising want and substitute folks leaving the sector, about 18,000 extra employees must be employed within the San Diego area over the subsequent 5 years. That features peer assist specialists, counselors, social employees, psychiatrists and different medical workers.

“I might say nowhere in America has constructed out the system of behavioral well being care to offer the appropriate care to the appropriate particular person on the proper time, and I need San Diego to be the primary,” stated San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher throughout the current symposium.

Fletcher commissioned the examine. He stated nobody entity can repair the hole in a single day, however many should chip in.

“We’re hoping to not solely leverage our associates in philanthropy, to have the county be part of, to have the state be part of and we’ll be going to Washington D.C. to advocate for funding there as a result of we’ve bought to develop a system that will get the appropriate particular person the appropriate care on the proper time,” Fletcher stated. “And investing within the workforce is an important part.”

For Fletcher, this challenge is private. He stated he had a turbulent and traumatic childhood. Then as a U.S. Marine had a number of fight deployments.

“I’ve watched the influence of fight weigh not simply on me however on my associates and I understand how severe that’s, however the actuality of trauma is it isn’t simply Marine and Navy SEALS in conflict who undergo this, trauma is trauma,” Fletcher stated. “Anybody who survived a sexual assault, anybody who has been in a troublesome scenario may very well be experiencing it and it pains me deeply that we do not deal with problems with psychological well being the identical manner we do bodily well being.”

The county has been investing extra yr over yr. The final 4 price range cycles have resulted in a $230 million enhance in behavioral well being providers, with the general price range approaching $900 million.

Native nonprofits additionally get county contracts to offer behavioral well being providers within the area, however some argue that system is outdated and doesn’t preserve tempo with rising prices of residing.

“Proper now the county is permitting us to do hire-on bonuses, however we additionally have to do retention bonuses,” stated Cathryn Nacario, CEO of the San Diego chapter of the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness, or NAMI. “We want to have the ability to reward the workers who caught with us, particularly throughout the pandemic.”

NAMI San Diego works with as much as 40,000 San Diegans a yr. Nacario stated a few of her workers are leaving the sector attributable to burnout.

“People are additionally leaving for greater paying jobs throughout the identical trade as a result of there’s such a workforce scarcity,” she stated. “What we’re seeing occurring is people are leaving for $1 or $2 extra per hour and actually giving no discover. Saying, ‘Hey I’ll work for thus and so and I’m leaving tomorrow.’”

The Workforce Partnership estimates the value tag for hiring and coaching 18,000 further employees could be round $424 million. They suggest a “down fee” technique, which requires investing $128 million to carry on 4,250 employees over the subsequent 5 to 10 years. Nacario is a part of the steering committee that goals to place these objectives into motion.

“That is really the place the work begins,” she stated. “We don’t need this to go up on a shelf and collect mud. So now we have to get a bunch of core people collectively to verify over the subsequent two, three, 5, seven years this continues to maneuver ahead.”

The Workforce Partnership additionally recommends growing a regional coaching hub to create a gradual pipeline of behavioral well being employees.