In 2023 the Oregon legislature declared a state of emergency in its behavioral health system based, in part, on severe workforce shortages. In January of 2025, a legislatively mandated workgroup released its report on that workforce crisis, titled Stabilizing Oregon’s Public Behavioral Health System. This document captures seven key findings and organizes recommendations across…

Hundreds of reports have been issued in past decades with recommendations for strengthening the mental health and substance use workforce. The Center for Workforce Solutions released within the past year a framework identifying the levers of change for improving the workforce. It then created a cross walk of more than 400 recommendations…

In 2023, the Maryland legislature established the Behavioral Health Workforce Investment Fund to reimburse local governments for the cost of “… educating, training, certifying, recruiting, placing, and retaining behavioral health professionals and paraprofessionals.” As one result of this legislation, the Maryland Health Care Commission engaged a workforce research and consulting firm, Trailhead Strategies, to conduct…

by Leighton Huey, MDSecretary/Treasurer and Member, Board of Directors, Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health WorkforceAssociate Dean, Professor of Psychiatry, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine Over the past many years, the Annapolis Coalition has done important work addressing the frontline behavioral health workforce, primarily focusing on this important group of…

A recent report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture identifies community-level factors affecting the recruitment and retention of rural healthcare professionals. The authors used key informant interviews and a survey of healthcare professionals in 150 small, rural towns in nine states, emphasizing a broad range of community assets and…

by Michael T, Flaherty, Ph.D., Chair, Annapolis Coalition Board of Directors In April 2022, the President and the White House Office on Drug Control Policy released their inaugural (2022) National Drug Strategy. Based on a collaborative process of 18 National Drug Control Agencies with input from over 2000 leaders and…

Mental health advocacy group, Inseparable, recently commissioned a report on accessing behavioral healthcare treatment in the US, finding that “roughly, two-thirds of Americans with a diagnosed mental health condition were unable to access treatment in 2021, though they had health insurance.” The report also found more than “half of the U.S.…

The Senior Science and Policy Advisor for the Annapolis Coalition, Dr. Michael Hoge, has been focused on the national crisis in child and adolescent mental health. In collaboration with Connecticut colleagues at the Child Health and Development Institute and the Yale School of Medicine, he has authored a new article, Emergency Department Use…

The Annapolis Coalition’s worked has spanned more than 20 years, since first coming together in 2001. Mental Health Weekly recently spoke with Michael Hoge, Ph.D., Senior Science and Policy Advisor for the Coalition, about some of the challenges and trends the behavioral health workforce is facing. Some milestones of the Coalition’s work…