Pontiac Times

Mental health care positions are difficult to fill in the Detroit area, and it's causing problems for agencies like Community Care Services, run by Susan Kozak, Bridge Michigan reported.

The agency has positions that are going unfilled, like case managers for children and adults, nurse practitioners, therapists for children, substance abuse clinicians and peer support specialists. Community Care Services has more than a dozen job openings and serves thousands of children, adults and families in metro Detroit.

“It’s the No. 1 thing I worry about,” Kozak, the agency’s executive director, told Bridge Michigan. “We can’t start programs. We can’t expand programs. Our caseloads are through the roof. We are not meeting client needs.” 

Kozak’s organization isn’t the only one experiencing this issue. Agencies are struggling to recruit and retain behavioral health workers in multiple specialties, and the pandemic isn’t helping. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a survey that shows young adults 18 to 24 are twice as likely to report new or increased substance abuse or suicidal thoughts than adults 25 and older.

The state was struggling to recruit and keep behavioral health workers even before the pandemic began, however. An analysis in 2019 by Altarum found that the treatment network was not as strong as it could be and that many Michigan residents were not getting the help they needed.

“The pandemic has exacerbated the situation to the point where (lack of mental health care) is near epidemic proportions,” Kevin Fischer, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told Bridge Michigan.

There are a few measures that advocates say could boost access to care for many of the underserved areas of the state.

One idea is expanding federal loan programs for primary care medical and behavioral health professionals who will work in underserved areas for a minimum of two years. Another is expanding and supporting MIDOCs, a state-funded program to broaden residency positions in a variety of medical specialties, including family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and psychiatry.

A third idea is boosting pay for direct care workers. There is a shortage of 34,000 direct care workers in the state. The $2 hourly boost for home care workers authorized in December will expand at the end of February.