Our Position on the Workforce Shortage

A common-sense analysis of available population and licensee numbers leads us to conclude that there is no mental healthcare workforce shortage in TX (LPC and LMFT's). The current perceived "shortage" stems from two major thought platforms.

First, the odd manner in which the citizen:counselor ratios are calculated by the state guarantees a weak platform of logic from which to proceed. This system needs a close examination and possible overhaul.

Second, the real "shortage" is not about the overall number of practicing clinicians, but appears to be almost entirely about access to current, and development of future providers in a number of different micro-economic applications. These scenarios include but are not limited to:

• An uninsured client's ability to self-pay. A thriving economy should increase discretionary income and improve the self-pay climate.
• Geographic location of licensees is a recurring issue. Availability of counselors in sparsely populated areas will not change until populations increases are able to support one or more counselors in a given area. Until that time technology will have to fill the void.
• Access to current, active providers through corporate insurance and EAP chokepoints (which are also the primary determinant for access and counselor pay structure). The removal of corporate access restrictions (chokepoints) through the advent of a Free Medical Market will increase the pool of available therapists and greatly reduce (eliminate?) current access issues.
• The hiring pool is shallow. The availability of purpose-trained counselors with specialized skill-sets for employers is a chronic problem for employers. Better academic planning and advisory resources in the academic portion of the New Counselor Supply Chain should result in a natural ebb and flow in the annual supply of new counselors with appropriate skill-sets for the market's needs. A task force report commissioned by TX Governor Greg Abbott seems to have largely determined this was a major factor in the skilled worker shortage and has identified specific measure to be taken to shore up the problem.

These are the issues we should be addressing to alleviate the "workforce shortage" issues. Items #3 and #4 above are systemic issues and are where we should place the lion's share of our efforts.  We must address the larger problem of active recruitment in the early academic levels and the proper skill-set training of our next generation of counselors. Addressing this supply chain issue will go a very long way towards addressing the current and future staffing needs of our marketplace.