Where did the professional behavioral health workforce grow between 2011 and 2019? Evidence from Census Data

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2021.108482

This study 

quantified the specialty behavioral health (SBH) workforce and change, and assessed its association with age-adjusted drug mortality.

Thus, the study uses detailed information on the number of workers in treatment facilities and their earnings to examine whether changes in the treatment sector over the past nine years have responded to the changing landscape of the drug overdose crisis.

Using a new longitudinal dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau, we examined the SBH workforce in 3130 U.S. counties for the period 2011-2019 and fit county-level outcome data to an ordinary least squares regression model as a function of the country's prior year age-adjusted drug mortality rate and county sociodemographic characteristics.

The results show 

that the number of SBH facilities, workforce, and wages have steadily increased between 2011 and 2019, with the largest increases seen in outpatient (number of facilities and employment) and housing (average wages).

Growth in residential SBH facilities at the county level was positively and significantly associated with the county's age-adjusted drug mortality rate in the previous year, but there was no similar positive association between employment or wages and mortality.