Kentucky recently became the sixth state (joining Arkansas, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Tennessee) to allow pastoral counselors to become licensed mental health counselors. As of now, Kentucky only has 20 licensed pastoral counselors. But the hope is that licensing will increase those numbers by making it easier for pastoral counselors to receive health insurance reimbursement and by adding luster to the field.
According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which tracks the health care workforce, Kentucky is among the states with the lowest per capita number of psychologists and mental health counselors. Nationally, the shortage of mental health service providers is more acute than other medical areas. According to HRSA, 89.3 million Americans live in federally-designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, compared to 55.3 million Americans living in primary-care shortage areas and 44.6 million in dental health shortage areas. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that the current mental health workforce is only able to meet about half of the nation’s demand for behavioral health services.
[For more of this story, written by Michael Ollove, go to http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/re...ll-mental-health-gap]
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