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About the Database

The GWMI is committed to conducting research and policy analysis to promote greater equity in healthcare and society. For all healthcare services, the provider workforce represents a critical piece of the puzzle in determining equitable access to essential health services. The Behavioral Health Workforce project focuses on the mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD) workforce in the United States.
Using novel data sources, this comprehensive national database has identified 1.3 million behavioral health providers including nearly 700,000 behavioral health specialists (including psychiatric and addiction medicine specialists, psychologists, counselors and therapists); approximately 435,000 primary care physicians and advanced practice providers who prescribed 11 or more behavioral health medications; and an additional 182,871 other physician specialists who also wrote 11+ behavioral health medications.  The GW Behavioral Health Workforce primarily relies on two unique data sources: the IQVIA Xponent retail prescription data and state licensure data. 

Request the data to use in your own analysis of this workforce. If you would like access to the database, please submit a request.​
  • IQVIA Xponent Retail Prescription Data
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Using IQVIA Xponent retail prescription data, we have identified over 600,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants prescribing 11 or more mental health/substance use disorder related medications in 2020. This dataset allows us to track providers over time by specialty, type of medication prescribed (including medications for addiction treatment or MAT), payor types (including acceptance of Medicaid), and volume of prescriptions (by type and payor). 
  • State Licensure Data
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To identify psychologists, counselors, and therapists, we are using state licensure data. We have collected and standardized data for: 
  • licensed psychologists in 50 states and the District of Columbia
  • licensed clinical social workers in 48 states and the District of Columbia
  • licensed professional counselors in 47 states and the District of Columbia, and
  • licensed marriage and family therapists in 48 states and the District of Columbia.
 
Where state licensure data is not available or where address information is insufficient to map providers, the supply of psychologists, counselors, therapists, and social workers is provided by NPPES. NPPES data is used for:
  • licensed psychologists for DC, HI, KS, KY, NY, RI, TN, WA, and WY (insufficient address information),
  • licensed clinical social workers for KY, MS, WV (data not available), HI, NY, SD, WA, and WY (insufficient address information),
  • licensed professional counselors for AL, AR, NM, MS (data not available), DC, HI, KY, ND, NY, SD, WA, WV, and WY (insufficient address information), and
  • licensed marriage and family therapists for AR, MS, NM (data not available), HI, KY, ND, NY, SD, WA, WV, and WY (insufficient address information). 
  • Supplementing Practitioner Data
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​Burning Glass
  • We are using Burning Glass job data to identify demand for behavioral health providers, specifically data on peer support workers where there is currently limited available data on the supply of this workforce
State-level policies
  • We are developing a database to track state level behavioral health related policies such as scope of practice (SOP) regulations, Medicaid reimbursement policies, and various certification requirements
publicly available datasets
  • We are using publicly available datasets including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to track the number of graduates in behavioral health education and training programs and the American Community Survey (ACS) to track the behavioral health workforce; these datasets also include race and ethnicity. We are also using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), County Health Rankings, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Wide-ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) Data to measure need
survey instruments
  • We are fielding two survey instruments: 1) Clinician Behavioral Health Workforce Survey to better understand clinician practice patterns and, 2) Behavioral Health Workforce Employer Survey to better understand challenges with recruitment and retention at the employer level
The Behavioral Health Workforce Tracker was created in partnership with HealthLandscape and was funded under grant number FG000028 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The views, policies, and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of SAMHSA or HHS and should not be construed as such.
Last Updated: August 2024
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