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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox wants to make it easier for qualified behavioral health workers to become licensed in the state.
The governor on Tuesday presented the results of the first year's research conducted by the Utah Department of Commerce's Office of Professional Licensure's review of professional licensing for behavioral health professionals and released the recommended changes to the licensing process.
The meeting comes just one month after the governor asked lawmakers for more than $193 million to address homelessness and mental health. Cox said at the time that the state needs about 8,000 additional behavioral health care workers to meet the current demand.
He requested $8 million for mental health care, including $3.3 million for paid internships, student loan forgiveness and training incentives; $2.9 million in ongoing funding for rural receiving centers and two additional mobile crisis teams. The governor also hoped to fund a pilot project to increase behavioral health licensing opportunities while noting that the current standards made it difficult.
Now in addition to his request for the funds, Cox is asking the Utah Legislature to revamp the way the state issues licenses to practice in the mental health field.
"Nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide last year, more than any other year on record. And while we were optimistic to see that Utah's no longer in the top five when it comes to suicide rates ... even in those somewhat optimistic numbers ... the uptake has caused a surge in demand for mental health services," said Cox. "And unfortunately, far too many Utahns who were trying to access mental health services are unable."
Many barriers are preventing behavioral health access for as many as 515,000 Utahns who need services without treatment, the Office of Professional Licensure Review found.
The review pointed to a lack of "extender roles" in the behavioral health workforce. Approximately 67% of active licenses in the Utah medical workforce require only a bachelor's degree or lower compared to 27% of the Utah behavioral health workforce. The medical field allows high school graduates to begin training to work as emergency medical responders, while the field of psychology is limited to those with graduate degrees.
"These folks at the bottom can act as extenders to the expertise for those folks at the top. It's incredibly important because it's a more efficient way of delivering service," said Margaret Busse, executive director of the Department of Commerce. "It's also important because it provides a career ladder for folks wanting to get into that."
The Office of Professional Licensure Review released the following recommendations in a report:
- Train smarter, not harder: Implement more flexible supervision hours, focus on enhancing clinical skills and reduce burdensome continuing education requirements.
- Expand pathways and portability: Establish a new alternative supervision track, increase the workforce through interstate compacts and introduce a higher-level addiction counseling license.
- Streamline governance structure: Create a multi-professional board.
- Fill gaps in career ladders and care: Create lower-level extender licenses and certifications, allow psychologists limited prescribing privileges.
Changes made would have to be approved by the Legislature.
"We want smart regulation, without imposing undue burdens on individuals, families and our economy," Sen. Curtis Bramble said. "Should licensing be to protect the profession? Or should licensing be something that provides protection, public health and safety for the public? This is not going to be an easy piece of legislation. There are those whose incumbent legacy authority is going to be challenged; the safety blankets of their license is going to be challenged. And yet we believe that at the end of the day, we're going to have much, much better programs."
