Call for Improvements to Federal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Workforce Projection Methods

For several decades, national surveys and reports have well documented the serious, growing, and unmet need for mental and behavioral health services among children, adolescents, and young adults (C/A/YA) in the United States.^1-3 Moreover, shortages and maldistribution of child and adolescent psychiatrists have been repeatedly reported.^4,5 This scarcity is especially concerning given that in 2017, an estimated 44% of child and adolescent psychiatrists were age 55 and older.⁶ The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and other mental and behavioral health organizations have consistently advocated for substantially expanding the child and adolescent psychiatry workforce through loan relief and other mental and behavioral health workforce programs serving C/A/YA.^7-11 Despite this, national projections of the future child and adolescent psychiatry workforce, produced by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the first time in 2018, estimated an oversupply of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States by 2030.¹² Moreover, these projections also found a surplus of school counselors, social workers, and psychiatric nurse practitioners, all of whom play a role in serving C/A/YA with mental and behavioral health conditions.¹³.