SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State and local officials are telling an Illinois Senate committee a current shortage of mental health workers is unprecedented.
“There is a shortage of licensed and certified staff leading to reductions in treatment, while there is also an increase in demand for services, when you compare them to pre-pandemic levels,” said Donnell Barnett, Deputy Director, Illinois Department of Human Services.
Jud DeLoss, CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, says wages and vaccine mandates are keeping workers out of the field, at a time when the pandemic has increased the need for services.
“The opioid epidemic continues to ravage the communities, both urban-suburban and rural,” said DeLoss. “Suicides have spiked, particularly among communities of color. Childhood depression, as we’ve seen studies recently of students, adolescents, because of isolation, have experienced more depression, more anxiety.”
Local providers say they lose staff to state facilities, and they’d like to see things like retention bonuses and training, tax credits for hiring individuals out of recovery, and less administrative red tape.
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