The increasing commitments over the last couple of years to boost financial investment in support of mental health needs across society, by government as well as philanthropic entities, have been welcome developments — ones that mental health advocates and experts have been urging for years.
Last month, for example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a sizable $480.5 million in new funding for youth mental health. That closely followed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announcements committing hundreds of millions for mental health and addiction services. And as Inside Philanthropy has noted in previous articles over the last couple of years, the national rollout and expansion of the mental health-focused 988 emergency service hotline is underway, and will continue to require new personnel as services and resources expand in communities across the country.
But programs and funding commitments can accomplish little without trained professionals to deliver the care and services that fall within the large category of mental health, from emergencies like suicide prevention, to longer-term treatment for psychological needs like depression and substance use issues.
In short: Mental healthcare is a profession that has to grow to keep pace with needs, and to ensure that the billions in public money committed to behavioral health are well spent. That means the mental-health-related professions are not just a growth area for jobs, but that support for education and training is an important niche for philanthropy in years to come — particularly in an era when education costs have become so burdensome. While a few funders are tapping into this need, there’s a huge opportunity going forward for foundations and major donors concerned about mental health.
The Health Resources Services Administration, an agency of DHHS, tracks and forecasts the supply and demand of behavioral health professionals. It’s a list of job categories that includes adult and child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, addiction counselors, physicians assistants, therapists, school counselors and more. Not surprisingly, the agency is forecasting increasing demand for nearly all these job categories by the end of the decade. Most states will experience shortages of most of these professionals, with the greatest shortfalls expected in rural areas, low-income communities, and communities of color.
Like many states, California is already experiencing a shortage of mental health workers, reports nonprofit news organization CalMatters, despite a 20% increase in the number of licensed behavioral health providers between 2016 and 2020. That’s how great the demand for services has been, both before and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. CalMatters cited a 2018 University of California report predicting a 40% shortage of psychologists and other therapists by 2028. Similar unmet needs for behavioral health providers have been forecast for years: In 2017, the National Council for Behavioral Health cited research indicating that 77% of counties in the U.S. were experiencing severe shortages of providers.
Fortunately, there are a few funders IP has been tracking that focus giving on the expansion of the mental health care and service workforce. Most of these funders give at a regional level to expand teaching programs and to fund scholarships and training at colleges and universities in their home states.
The Ballmers have quickly become a frontrunner in this field. Last spring, we noted a huge $425 million gift from Connie and Steve Ballmer, cofounders of the Ballmer Group, to the University of Oregon. The grant established the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, based in Portland. The university aims for the institute to serve as a “new national model” for behavioral and mental healthcare, uniting university training and research programs with public schools and families, and other community support programs that can deliver help and treatments to K-12 students. Specifically in terms of increasing the pipeline of trained professionals, the University of Oregon said it will propose new degree and certificate programs to train additional professionals in children’s mental and behavioral health needs.
That UO gift was not the Ballmers’ first foray into mental health workforce development in the Pacific Northwest. In summer of 2021, they announced a $38 million gift to the University of Washington targeting the current and future need for an expanded behavioral health workforce. Most of that funding, nearly $25 million, was intended for scholarships at several colleges and universities across Washington State. Another $5.5 million was to support training through the development of a new apprenticeship model for mental health practitioners.
While mental health is more relevant than it has been in decades, it’s not a new cause, and the Texas-based Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has been working in this space since 1940. The funder makes grants across the spectrum of mental health, supporting programs and services for communities, as well as policy analysis and research. But workforce development has long been part of its toolbox. Hogg Foundation funds a number of scholarships for students in social work and other mental health areas and provides support to assist doctoral students working on their dissertations.
Other funders may provide some support for mental health workforce development, if not as a primary interest. The Stranahan Foundation, established back in 1944 in Toledo, Ohio, by brothers Frank and Robert Stranahan, who started the Champion spark plug company, has long worked on addressing a range of community needs, including mental health and early childhood education, with workforce development a concern within those areas.
IP’s Connie Matthiessen wrote recently about the organization Mindful Philanthropy, which works in part to help philanthropic funders understand the complicated, many-tentacled mental health space — and crucially, where grantmaking and investments can make the greatest difference. Not surprisingly, workforce development is one of the key areas cited.
Mental health is, of course, fundamentally an aspect of human health. Shortages of physicians and nurses are being felt throughout the country, and that’s part of the mental health workforce story. So funders like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that support advanced nursing education in California, while not specifically targeting mental health, have an opportunity to tweak existing grantmaking programs to advance training for nurses in mental-health-specific areas.
The few funders mentioned above are by no means an exhaustive list, but there is clearly room and urgent need for more philanthropy dedicated to education and training of a mental health workforce. Colleges, universities and professional training programs are costly, sometimes prohibitively so. The long-simmering student loan forgiveness and reform debate will likely not end anytime soon.
One thing does jumps out when rounding up these funders: There should be a larger number of them working in this area — and while multimillion-dollar grants of the sorts that the Ballmers have made are obviously crucial, even smaller grants of a few thousand dollars in the form of a scholarship can get a student through a program and into work in the community. Workforce development, such as support for training and education programs or money for scholarships, is an area where philanthropic dollars can make a catalytic return on investment.