The training gap: an acute crisis in behavioral health education.
Changes in health care have outpaced changes in the educational programs offered to the behavioral health workforce. The result is a training gap that leaves graduate students, working professionals, and other direct care providers inadequately prepared for practice in the current health care environment. This article is based on a keynote address delivered at the Annapolis Conference on Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training. Major changes in health care are reviewed, followed by a description of the training gap as an acute crisis that impedes the delivery of effective and efficient mental health and addiction services. The author describes a national initiative to narrow the training gap and he calls for collective action by the varied groups and organizations that have a stake in this agenda.
Hoge
Michael A
MA
Yale Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA. michael.hoge@yale.edu
D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D001525:Behavioral Sciences / Q000193:education*; D004496:Education, Continuing; D004500:Education, Graduate; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce