Diversity in the U.S. Mental Health Workforce

PS coverA Diverse Mental Health Workforce: Are We There Yet? Has the field made progress in creating a more diverse workforce—a major recommendation of the 2001 Surgeon General’s report on culture and race-ethnicity? This literature review found scant evidence of progress: “Racial-ethnic minority populations are vastly underrepresented among clinically trained mental health practitioners in the United States,” the authors concluded. The authors found that from 1999 to 2006, psychiatrists had the highest percentage of racial-ethnic minority providers across time (17.6%–21.4%), followed by social workers (8.2%–12.9%) and psychologists (6.6%–7.8%).