Behavioral Health

The United States is experiencing a behavioral health crisis marked by a confluence of public health issues including suicidality and substance use disorder. Many factors contribute to this crisis, and one of the most important is lack of access to care. Nearly half of the individuals in the U.S. with mental health conditions go without treatment, and more than 122 million people—one third of the U.S. population—live in federally designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas. With an estimated 6,200 further clinicians needed to fill these shortages as of 2025, this lack of capacity poses not only significant barriers to accessing care but also places significant stress on the existing behavioral health workforce. In a national survey of these professionals in 2023, 93% of respondents reported experiencing burnout, and nearly half said that they had considered leaving their employment due to workforce shortages.

Supporting and strengthening this existing workforce—and equipping them with best practices to enhance quality of care—is crucial, as is supporting these efforts at institutions in medically underserved communities. For patients in these localities, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) provide a vital—and in some cases sole—lifeline to behavioral health services. In 2022, 88 percent of health centers provided mental health treatment, and 90 percent provided services for substance use disorder (SUD), but many of these institutions continued to face workforce and other challenges to offering comprehensive behavioral health services. Equipping leaders and clinicians at FQHCs with clinical best practices, peer learning opportunities, and workforce supports is therefore vital to ensuring that these institutions can continue to enhance access to quality care for the communities they serve.

To help address this need, the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) established our Behavioral Health program in 2023 to educate and inform our field on best practices, create supportive resources, and provide training and technical assistance to clinicians and leaders across the U.S. These efforts included the establishment in 2023 of ACU’s annual Behavioral Health Leadership Forum, the first national, in-person convening and educational forum for behavioral health leaders from community health centers. Browse our archived resources below or contact us for more information or to request technical assistance or training.