California needs more mental health professionals

California is suffering a shortage of mental health professionals – and it’s expected to get worse in the next decade.

In 2013, California had a shortage of 336 psychiatrists, according to national projections from the Health Resources and Services Administration, cited by the state Governor’s Office.

“That shortage is forecasted to grow to between 729 and 1,848 by 2025,” said Brian Ferguson, Gov. Jerry Brown’s deputy press secretary.

The Health Administration designates areas with a shortage of health professionals primarily using ratios between health professionals and population numbers.

“Federal regulations stipulate that, in order to be considered as having a shortage of providers, an area must have a population-to-provider ratio of a certain threshold,” according to information published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. “For mental health, the population to provider ratio must be at least 30,000 to 1.”

Statistics from The Steinberg Institute, a local nonprofit focused on issues related to mental health and founded by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, estimate that demand for psychiatry in the United States “will outstrip supply by 15,600 psychiatrists, or 25 percent” by 2025.