Too many Americans can’t get mental health treatment. Georgia can do better.

What is mental health care, really?

It’s the therapist you started seeing after you moved and your anxiety worsened. It’s the support group your mom went to after your dad died. It’s the meeting that your brother went to when he started drinking again. It’s the phone number your friend called when she felt hopeless, or worse.

Mental health care includes services, treatments and support systems that help people struggling with their mental, emotional or psychological health. And for millions across the country, it’s a lifeline.

That’s why it’s devastating that nearly half of people who need mental health care cannot get it and 80% of people with substance use disorder go without care, according to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

One reason: There aren’t enough providers available.

The mental health workforce shortage in our state is long-standing and significant. According to a new report by the mental health advocacy organization Inseparable, Georgia only meets 45% of our mental health workforce needs, which means that hospitals, community health centers and crisis care facilities across the state are understaffed and millions of people who need mental health care are left out in the cold.

In the social work field, the escalating mental health crisis has placed an unprecedented strain on the profession.

Social workers don’t merely witness a crisis; they absorb it. Constant exposure to trauma, from homelessness to mental health, often results in vicarious trauma for the professional. This is more than “stress;” it is a fundamental shift in the professional’s worldview, where the client’s hopelessness becomes the social worker’s reality.

Why aren’t there enough mental health professionals?

Mental health professionals are also tasked with navigating a resource-starved system that leads to compassion fatigue and threatens the professional’s longevity. When the helpers are pushed to the brink, the entire system is strained, yielding high turnover and diminished care for those in need.

I consistently see that social workers now exist in a state of permanent triage. They are often the first responders for a generation grappling with crippling anxiety and self-harm.

When caseloads quadruple the recommended ratios, intervention becomes a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. We are asking these professionals to hold up the sky for our children, even as their own foundations crumble.

Working with social workers across the state, I know all too well that those who dedicate their lives to supporting others are constantly undervalued, underappreciated and overworked, pushing many to leave the field altogether.

Social workers are certainly not the only providers who experience this. Consider the fact that for every $1 a physician assistant earns in Georgia, a psychiatrist earns just 64 cents.

With such dramatic wage discrimination, is it any wonder that there are not enough mental health providers available?

Cory Lowe is the president of the School Social Workers Association of Georgia and a licensed clinical social worker in Walker County. (Courtesy)

Mental health professionals are also tasked with navigating a resource-starved system that leads to compassion fatigue and threatens the professional’s longevity. When the helpers are pushed to the brink, the entire system is strained, yielding high turnover and diminished care for those in need.

I consistently see that social workers now exist in a state of permanent triage. They are often the first responders for a generation grappling with crippling anxiety and self-harm.

When caseloads quadruple the recommended ratios, intervention becomes a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. We are asking these professionals to hold up the sky for our children, even as their own foundations crumble.

Working with social workers across the state, I know all too well that those who dedicate their lives to supporting others are constantly undervalued, underappreciated and overworked, pushing many to leave the field altogether.

Social workers are certainly not the only providers who experience this. Consider the fact that for every $1 a physician assistant earns in Georgia, a psychiatrist earns just 64 cents.

With such dramatic wage discrimination, is it any wonder that there are not enough mental health providers available?

Here’s what changed in the Georgia state budget

It is difficult for people to enter the field to begin with because of high education costs, unpaid clinical hours and unnecessarily complicated licensing processes. And once we practitioners make it past all of that and into the field, we face high rates of burnout and attrition — some because of the nature of the work but some because of overly burdensome insurance practices.

Thankfully, Georgia’s lawmakers have the opportunity to make meaningful changes to the system. Good policy can help address both the pipeline of mental health providers available to join the Georgia workforce and their ability to successfully remain in practice.

With this year’s state budget, we’re taking meaningful steps in the right direction.

It includes an increase of $1.4 million to fund school social workers and another $1.3 million to continue school-based mental health support grants. The budget also set aside $750,000 for a pilot project to help schools maximize reimbursement for mental health services.

Investments like these are crucial to ensure that mental health care workers can provide people, especially kids, with the care they need when they need it.

Inseparable’s report provides a clear road map of actionable policies our state can adopt to strengthen and expand the workforce, making mental health care a viable and sustainable career path and ensuring all Georgians are able to find qualified mental health providers.

I, for one, am going to make sure my state legislators see this important new report. I will send it to them personally, along with a note of thanks for this year’s mental health investments in the budget. I encourage everyone reading this to do the same.

We all experience the impact of this problem — when we or our loved ones cannot find the help we need — and now we have an easy way to be part of the solution. Let’s make sure our legislators see this actionable policy road map that can help end the mental health care workforce shortage in Georgia.