Bowen Center’s Playbook Project issues report on Enhancing Indiana’s Mental and Behavioral Health Workforce

The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy has issued the Playbook for Enhancing Indiana's Mental and Behavioral Health Workforce.

Supported by a $515,005 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., this collaborative project with partners across Indiana is designed to improve understanding about the post-secondary pipeline of mental and behavioral health care workers in the state, which is not currently meeting the demand for services: Indiana’s mental health care is in crisis: 300K+ untreated, all 92 counties understaffed, leaving a societal cost of untreated mental illness in Indiana of $4.2B annually.

This document is part of a collaborative project focused on understanding Indiana’s post-secondary pipeline to practice for mental and behavioral health workers and identifying opportunities to strengthen the workforce.

“Indiana ranks in the bottom 10 of access to health care,” said Irsay Director Bernice Pescosolido. “Part of that is due to not having a sufficient workforce. The Bowen Center's efforts are designed to begin to fix that problem.”

Pescosolido and Continuity Lead Leslie Hulvershorn (Chair, Department of Psychiatry, IU SoM) collaborated as advisors on the project.