Passa alla casella di ricercaPassa alla navigazionePassa al contenuto principale

Mental Health Care Equity and Access: A Group Therapy Solution.

  • Divine Mercy University
    ,
  • Center for International Study of Spirituality and Mental Health, Divine Mercy University.
    ,
  • Department of Health Services Administration, Xavier University.
    ,
  • The Clinical Psychology Program, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
    ,
  • The Professional Psychology Program, The George Washington University.
    ,
  • Whittingham Psychological Services, Montgomery, Ohio, United States.
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer review

Publication Information

Tipo di output

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer review

Lingua originale

English

Pagine da-a (Numero di pagine)

Pagine 119-133 (15 pagine)

Rivista (volume, numero edizione)

American Psychologist (Volume 78, Edizione 2)

Attività cardine della pubblicazione

  • Published - 01/02/2023

Stato pubblicazione

Published - 01/02/2023

ISSN

0003-066X

Abstract

Mental health services are experiencing unprecedented levels of demand from clients during COVID resulting in longer wait lists and therapist burnout. As Nemoyer et al. (2019) point out, minorities experience a higher burden of mental illness while having less access and lower quality treatments. COVID has increased demands for mental health services even further, creating bottlenecks of care, therapist burnout, and leading to ever longer wait lists. This article will argue that inefficient supply of services is created by mental health providers being incentivized toward individual therapy. Group therapy offers a solution because it is a “triple E treatment”—efficient, effective, and equivalent to individual therapy in terms of outcomes (Burlingame & Strauss, 2021). Group interventions also address systemic racism and the needs of minorities who have been marginalized and cope with minority stress. This article will utilize a labor and financial impact analysis to demonstrate how increasing group therapy by 10% nationally, particularly in private practice and primary care integration settings, would increase treatment access for over 3.5 million people while reducing the need for 34,473 additional new therapists and simultaneously saving over $5.6 billion. It will discuss how incentivizing groups while holding therapists accountable for training, competency when working with people from diverse backgrounds, and outcomes can result in improved efficiency. This will allow therapists greater freedom to collaboratively select the most effective treatments for those from underserved and minority backgrounds and create easier access to quality treatments.

Access to documents

Publication metrics

PlumX, opens in new tab

Captures
63
Mentions
267
32