Cook County needs to double its mental health workforce to meet the demand for services expected in the coming years. [Health News Illinois]

A report released Monday found the county needed 16,000 more behavioral health professionals to provide for the 420,000 residents who needed — but did not receive — care last year. 

An estimated 30,763 behavioral health professionals worked in core, nursing and adjacent occupations in 2023. Roughly 40 percent of current behavioral health workers are expected to retire, leave Cook County or leave their occupation in the next five years.

“By 2028, Cook County needs to attract, retain and/or upskill 30,000 workers to address the (behavioral health) worker shortage and replace professionals expected to leave the field over the next five years,” noted the report from Cook County Health and the Cook County Public Health Department.

About 1.2 million residents, or 23 percent of the county's population, needed behavioral health services last year.

Challenges in the sector, including underfunding and higher rates of attrition and burnout, have lasted for years. However, the report said the COVID-19 pandemic “turned a workforce shortage into an emergency, increasing the need for mental health and substance use treatment across the state.”

The problem stretches across Illinois, with over a quarter of adults in the state reporting significant symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder in 2023, compared with just 11 percent in 2019. In 2021, the American Association of Medical Colleges said that Illinois could meet 24 percent of the mental health needs of the state with its current workforce.

It will take local and state policymakers and community leaders to tackle the issue, the report noted. Potential solutions could include a $50 million public/private fund to expand scholarship, apprenticeship and fellowship programs to bring individuals into the workforce. 

The report acknowledged recent efforts by Gov. JB Pritzker and the General Assembly to raise Medicaid rates, but said they “remain inadequate to address the problem.”

A symposium hosted by Cook County Health is set for Tuesday to discuss the report’s findings.

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