We continue to face the dark reality of a devastating mental health crisis. The United States hit an all-time high in suicide deaths for 2022, when approximately 49,500 individuals lost their lives to suicide. Without an adequate mental healthcare workforce to address this crisis, jails, hospitals, and homeless shelters are overflowing with individuals in critical need of mental and behavioral health services.  

Adults experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression increased from 36.4 to 41.5 percent between August 2020 and February 2021, accompanied by an increase from 9.2 to 11.7 percent of adults reporting that their mental health care needs went unmet due to lack of access to services. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 57 percent of youth ages 12-17 did not receive any care in the last year and 1.7 million Pennsylvanians live in a community that does not have enough mental health professionals. 
 
To help combat this devastating workforce shortage, we will be introducing legislation to establish and administer a program to provide funds for postdoctoral psychology internship placements in federally designated underserved areas - both urban and rural - throughout Pennsylvania. This program will not only expand access to mental and behavioral health services and support underserved communities, but also provide an opportunity to better attract, train, and retain psychologists across the Commonwealth.
 
Access to mental health resources in our most underserved areas must be remedied, and that lack of capacity was made even more apparent and urgent post-pandemic. Please join us in sponsoring this important legislation to improve access to these services in underserved communities across Pennsylvania while helping prepare a future generation of mental health professionals.