At NatCon, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s annual conference, thousands of mental health and substance use disorder professionals gathered to discuss the future of mental healthcare — and how to strengthen the workforce needed to support it.
The numbers are stark: As of Dec. 31, the number of designated mental health professional shortage areas rose from 6,418 to 6,807, with the population covered by those designations increasing from about 122 million to 137 million.
Brie Reimann, vice president for practice improvement and consulting at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, told Becker’s what workforce themes emerged most consistently from the discussions and what competencies clinicians will need as care evolves.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
1. The National Council recently brought behavioral health leaders together to discuss workforce pressures and future priorities. What themes surfaced most consistently around recruitment, retention and clinician burnout?
A key theme was that philanthropy can do more than sustain the status quo, it can accelerate improved practice by making catalytic investments that strengthen care now and unlock longer-term public or private funding. Examples discussed included Ballmer Group’s investment to expand CCBHCs, Kaiser Permanente’s Mental Health Career Accelerator with National Council, and Peg’s Foundation support for technology — each illustrating how regional philanthropy can help communities build toward a stronger, more sustainable system.
One of the clearest themes from the discussion was that workforce challenges are anticipated to grow with the implementation of HR 1 that will impact access to care, quality and sustainability. Across the conversation, there was strong alignment around the need for scalable solutions that strengthen the pipeline into the field, reduce avoidable burnout,and make community based practice more viable over time. There was also significant interest in philanthropy playing a catalytic role by supporting models that public financing alone has not yet fully built out — particularly early-career supports, supervision, workforce diversification, new care roles and innovations that help organizations retain staff and expand access.
2. AI and emerging technologies have become a major topic across behavioral health. How should organizations prepare future clinicians to work alongside AI tools while still maintaining strong patient relationships and clinical judgment?
When we talk about AI and technology use in behavioral health, the most immediate opportunity is reducing administrative burden so clinicians can spend more time on care seeing clients and less time on documentation, scheduling, reporting and other repetitive tasks. The goal is not to replace clinical judgment or the therapeutic relationship but to support it. Organizations should be helping future clinicians learn how to use AI tools thoughtfully in areas like clinical documentation, workflow support, data review, measurement-informed care and operational triage, while also building strong expectations around privacy, ethics, bias, transparency and human oversight.
The workforce of the future will need to be comfortable using technology as a support tool while remaining grounded in empathy, critical thinking and sound clinical decision-making. Organizations that are paving the way with the use of AI and technology, the early adopters, have the unique opportunity to mentor other organizations building opportunities for learning and adoption.
3. What gaps exist between traditional graduate education and the realities of today’s behavioral health workforce, particularly in community-based and high-need settings?
There is still a significant workforce gap between the number of providers and individuals needing care, especially in rural and high-need settings. Many clinicians leave the workforce before licensure because the process is expensive, slow and difficult to navigate and because early career roles often do not offer enough compensation, supervision or flexibility to be sustainable.
Programs like Kaiser Permanente’s Mental Health Career Accelerator, in partnership with National Council, are designed to address those barriers by helping candidates pursuing licensure with direct financial support, training and technical assistance, mentorship and milestone-based supports that make it more feasible to stay on the path to completion. At the same time, provider shortages are especially acute in communities that need care most. That means we have to address both the pipeline and the barriers inside it: expanding supervision capacity, reducing financial obstacles to licensure, strengthening placement pathways, and building more practical preparation for complex, team-based, real-world care environments.
4. Looking ahead, what workforce skills or competencies will be most critical for behavioral health clinicians over the next five years as care models and patient needs continue to evolve?
Clinicians will need a broader set of competencies to navigate HR 1, other policy shifts and a more complex service environment. In addition to strong clinical skills, organizations will need staff who can operate in high-risk, high-volume settings with greater agility — using data, coordinating across teams, managing documentation and accountability requirements and adapting to changing eligibility, reimbursement and reporting expectations.
Preparedness will increasingly depend on workforce models that combine clinical expertise with operational readiness, comfort with the use of technology and the ability to respond to policy driven changes without losing sight of patient engagement, safety and quality.
At the Becker's Fall Behavioral Health Summit, taking place November 4–5 in Chicago, behavioral health leaders and executives will explore strategies for expanding access to care, integrating services, addressing workforce challenges and leveraging innovation to improve outcomes across the behavioral health continuum. Apply for complimentary registration now.