Annapolis Coalition – On The Behavioral Health Workforce

The Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce

Strengthening the Workforce to Improve Health and Healthcare

25 YEARS OF ADVANCING THE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH WORKFORCE

THE ANNAPOLIS COALITION LEGACY

September 10-11, 2026, marked the 25^th anniversary of the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce. In 2001, the founders of the Coalition convened in Annapolis, Maryland the first national, interdisciplinary, cross sector meeting to address the growing mental health and substance use workforce crisis. Strong personal and professional bonds were created among those in attendance, fueled by their mutual concern for workers in this field and their shared experience of being stranded together in Annapolis when the World Trade Center towers fell that September 11^th.

For a quarter century, the Annapolis Coalition has pursued its mission to promote the health of our nation’s population by strengthening the behavioral health workforce. As those who founded and guided this effort entered the twilight of their careers, they used the occasion of the Coalition’s 25^th anniversary to dissolve its legal status as a non-profit and step aside as subsequent generations take the mantle of advocacy and action to strengthen this workforce. Read the full announcement, Looking Back, Looking Forward. The Coalition’s website remains live so that the products of its work continue to be accessible. An Annapolis Coalition Legacy Newsletter will continue to disseminate information periodically about innovations in behavioral health workforce development.

Barriers to Behavioral Health Workforce Development: A Path Forward

Countless analyses have been done on the behavioral health workforce problem. Innumerable calls to action, reports of recommendations, and strategic plans for addressing the problems have been generated. The ideas regarding ‘what needs to be done’ are well documented. The critical question now facing the field is ‘why has so little been done to address this crisis?’

The Annapolis Coalition offers a Commentary on this pressing question based on discussions with thousands of federal, state, and local behavioral health leaders and staff, and the lessons learned from implementing a highly diverse set of workforce initiatives over the past several decades. It is an analysis of the numerous and daunting barriers to action that have resulted in a workforce that is insufficient in size and preparation. It is a call to shift attention to the root causes of the workforce crisis to overcome the barriers to change.

National Action Plan

Change Strategies of the Coalition

Multiple strategies have been used by the Coalition to support the development of this workforce. These include (1) convening stakeholders across the country to identify the problems and potential solutions; (2) developing workforce strategic plans for both the nation and individual states; (3) providing consultation and technical assistance to federal and state agencies, universities, institutes, foundations, and service organizations; (4) widely disseminating information on the workforce and workforce innovations; (5) advocating for and advancing workforce development through innumerable presentations and publications; (6) developing competencies for direct care workers, tribal providers, integrated care, and coordinated specialty care; and (7) designing and delivering intensive recruitment and retention learning collaboratives for provider organizations across the country.