San Diego has a big problem. We need 18,500 more mental health workers by 2027 to help everyone who needs care.
This is a serious issue that affects many families in our community.
A report from the San Diego Workforce Partnership called Addressing San Diego’s Behavioral Health Worker Shortage shows that our area needs thousands more mental health professionals in the next few years. Because of this shortage, the San Diego Foundation is working harder to help train more mental health workers.
Why This Is Such a Big Problem
Mental health problems are getting worse, especially for young people. A California Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative report found that California has seen the second biggest increase in depression and anxiety among kids and teens in the whole country. Even more troubling, almost two out of every three young people in California who have depression cannot get the mental health treatment they need because there are not enough services available.
The shortage of mental health workers in San Diego is huge. We need 8,100 more workers right now to help people who need care today. We also need 7,800 more workers to replace the ones who will retire or leave their jobs in the next five years. On top of that, we need 2,600 more workers to handle the growing number of people who will need help by 2027.
The San Diego Workforce Partnership report says we need to spend 128 million dollars on training programs. Most of this money, about 98 million dollars, would go toward scholarships, money to help students while they study, loan forgiveness programs, and making training programs bigger.
Many mental health workers are feeling overwhelmed. One counselor wrote, “I just want to help people, but being extremely short-staffed, feeling the pressure, it’s brutal. I’m really burned out and I’m white-knuckling it.”
The Problem Is Getting Worse
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco think that by 2028, California will have 41 percent fewer psychiatrists than we need. We will also have 11 percent fewer psychologists, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, and clinical social workers than we need.
Another report shows that the problem is even worse in communities of color. There are not enough mental health workers who understand different cultures and speak different languages. This makes it harder to help everyone who needs care.
An analysis by the California Alliance found many reasons why we don’t have enough mental health workers. These include workers getting burned out and quitting their jobs, low pay, older workers retiring, more people needing help, and not enough good training programs. The report also found that we need better programs to help students from low-income families and students of color learn about careers in mental health care.
The report suggests creating better job training programs that give students mentors and help them develop their skills. These programs would especially help first-generation college students, low-income students, and students of color explore careers in mental health and social services.
What We Are Doing to Help
The San Diego Foundation is working to fix this problem. Their efforts match what the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency’s Mental Health Services Act Annual Update says we need to do. The goal is to build a system where mental health services are fair, spread out evenly across the region, and available to all individuals and families.
The San Diego Foundation is fighting this problem through its Healthy Children and Families Initiative. This big program started in 2021 and works to make life better for children and low- to moderate-income families by giving them more access to helpful services. Since it started, the program has spent more than 1.25 million dollars on mental and behavioral health resources.
In 2023, the San Diego Foundation gave 650,000 dollars in grants to local nonprofit organizations. These grants help expand access to mental health resources that understand different cultures and help people who have experienced trauma. The foundation gave money to 18 different nonprofit organizations.
Some of the organizations that received grants include the Logan Heights Community Development Corporation, which is expanding mental and behavioral health services in their community. Mending Matters received money to pay for a therapist who provides free services and to expand access to high-quality mental health care in schools for underserved youth and families in the Mountain Empire region of the county.
The San Diego American Indian Health Center got funding to provide parenting classes and mental health support. They also received money for a program that screens children for developmental issues and targets high-risk behaviors. San Diego Youth Services received grants to provide proven mental health practices that identify the social and economic problems that limit what young people can achieve.
These efforts also connect with the Fifty & Forward Campaign, which is the biggest project in the San Diego Foundation’s 50-year history. This campaign will give 500 million dollars in grants to work on our region’s biggest opportunities in three main areas: education, children and families, and the environment. The campaign also aims to raise 1 billion dollars to help shape our community’s future.
For families and individuals who need mental health support right now, organizations like Apex Recovery provide important treatment services and resources while our community works to train more mental health professionals for the future.
Why This Matters for Everyone
The mental health worker shortage affects everyone in San Diego County. When there are not enough therapists, counselors, and other mental health professionals, people have to wait longer to get help. Some people cannot get help at all. This can make mental health problems worse and can hurt families and communities.
Young people are especially affected by this shortage. When kids and teenagers cannot get the mental health care they need, it can affect their ability to do well in school, make friends, and grow up healthy. It can also affect their families, who may not know how to help their children.
The shortage also makes it harder for people from different cultural backgrounds to find mental health workers who understand their experiences and speak their language. This is especially important because different cultures may have different ways of thinking about mental health and different ways of dealing with problems.
Looking Toward the Future
Solving the mental health worker shortage will take time and effort from many different groups. The San Diego Foundation is doing important work, but they cannot solve this problem alone. We need help from schools and universities that train mental health workers, from the government, from healthcare organizations, and from the community.
Training new mental health workers takes several years. Someone who wants to become a therapist or counselor usually needs to go to college for four years and then go to graduate school for two or more years. After that, they need to complete supervised training before they can work on their own. This means that even if we start training more people today, it will be several years before they can start helping patients.
That is why it is so important to start working on this problem now. The San Diego Foundation and other organizations are trying to make it easier for people to become mental health workers by providing scholarships and other financial help. They are also working to create better training programs and to help people from different backgrounds enter the field.
We also need to make sure that mental health workers want to stay in San Diego and continue doing this work. This means paying them fairly, giving them good working conditions, and helping them avoid burnout. When mental health workers are happy and healthy, they can do a better job helping their patients.
How the Community Can Help
Everyone in the community can help address the mental health worker shortage. Parents, teachers, and community leaders can encourage young people to consider careers in mental health. They can also support programs that help train new mental health workers.
Community members can also support organizations that provide mental health services, like Apex Recovery and the nonprofit organizations that received grants from the San Diego Foundation. This support can come in many forms, including volunteering, donating money, or simply spreading the word about these important services.
Schools can help by creating programs that teach students about mental health careers and by partnering with colleges and universities to provide pathways into mental health training programs. Employers can help by providing good benefits and working conditions for mental health workers.
The government can help by providing funding for training programs and by making it easier for qualified mental health workers from other states or countries to work in California. They can also work to address some of the underlying causes of mental health problems, such as poverty, homelessness, and lack of access to healthcare.
Where does Mental Health Services Go From Here
The mental health worker shortage in San Diego is a serious problem that affects thousands of people in our community. We need 18,500 more mental health professionals by 2027 to meet the growing demand for services. This shortage is especially hard on young people and communities of color, who often have the hardest time accessing mental health care.
The San Diego Foundation is working hard to address this problem through its Healthy Children and Families Initiative and other programs. They have already invested more than 1.25 million dollars in mental health resources and have given grants to 18 local nonprofit organizations. These efforts are part of the larger Fifty & Forward Campaign, which aims to improve education, support children and families, and protect the environment in San Diego County.
While organizations like Apex Recovery continue to provide important mental health treatment services, we need many more trained professionals to meet the growing need in our community. Solving this problem will require effort from many different groups, including schools, government, healthcare organizations, and community members.
The good news is that people are working on this problem and making progress. With continued effort and support, we can train more mental health workers and make sure that everyone in San Diego County can get the mental health care they need. This will make our whole community healthier and stronger.
You can learn more about the Fifty & Forward Campaign at SDFoundation.org/50.
