Editorial: Stepping Up Care to Reach More Families

Abstract

There are not enough of us. That was true even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has only made the need for mental health services more acute.^1,2 There are roughly 30,500 practicing psychiatrists in the United States, and 106,000 licensed psychologists, and perhaps a million mental health practitioners worldwide. That translates to roughly one psychologist per 3,000 persons in the United States, one psychiatrist per 11,000 persons in the United States, and one provider per 8000 persons globally.^3,4 That is obviously inadequate. Ramping up the training of professionals is not a sufficient solution. Even large percentage increases in the number of freshly minted providers still miss the mark by several orders of magnitude.