Many unknowns surround behavioral health in 2025, according to Sabina Lim, MD.
Dr. Lim is system vice president of health policy strategy at New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System.
With a new presidential administration set to take office, there is uncertainty regarding the regulatory environment for behavioral health, she said.
"When there's uncertainty, there can be a lot of opportunity to try things, to test out things that may not have been considered in the past," Dr. Lim said.
She connected with Becker's to discuss the top challenges and questions on her mind in 2025:
1. How can providers create work-life balance in the age of telehealth?
There is no doubt telehealth has opened doors to access behavioral healthcare, Dr. Lim said, but the rise of online-only options providers can create a workforce challenge in a hospital-based setting, she said.
"How do we, particularly as academic medical centers, think about how we provide work-life balance for providers? So they're not thinking that online, or online-predominant, is the only way to go?"
A limited number of providers is a perennial challenge in behavioral health.
"I'm trying to figure out how we, as a system, better balance the need for access, and ease of access, while recognizing that there's a finite number of practitioners and providers," Dr. Lim said. "How do we better balance out the needs for different types of providers in different behavioral healthcare settings?"
2. How can behavioral health simplify?
Demand for behavioral health is on the rise — but the presence of more services does not translate to better access if it is difficult for patients to find these services.
"One of the complexities of behavioral health is there's so many different types of programs, and so many different types of providers, that, in and of itself, can unintentionally create access issues," Dr. Lim said.
A key question is how to simplify access, both for patients and for non-behavioral health providers helping patients seek behavioral services.
"How do we make access easier for them, so they don't have to spend time figuring out what types of programs to access?" she said.
3. How can addiction care be better integrated with other forms of care?
Addiction care has often been pushed into its own silo, Dr. Lim said.
New regulations have made it easier for more providers to prescribe medication-assisted treatment for opioid use, but the move has done little to increase uptake of treatment.
The trend points to a need to rethink how addiction care is delivered, Dr. Lim said.
"We need to really think about how we can concretely transform and make addiction care part of basic medical care," Dr. Lim said. "Lifting regulations is a start, but it's also about practice. How can we change practices and mindsets?"