Behavioral health utilization rose 62.6 percent between 2018 and 2024 and the national mental health workforce is on pace to fall nearly 100,000 full-time counselors short of demand by 2038.
Emergency departments are absorbing much of that strain: hospitals reporting to the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association’s boarding tracker continue to show a meaningful share of staffed ED beds occupied by behavioral health patients awaiting evaluation or placement each month.
Behavioral health affects nearly every part of a health system, yet many organizations still manage it through fragmented programs rather than coordinated enterprise strategies. This discussion explores how leading health systems are building integrated behavioral health service lines that improve patient outcomes, reduce operational strain and strengthen financial performance.
Key discussion topics include:
- Building executive alignment around behavioral health strategy
- Designing governance, staffing and measurement for enterprise programs
- Reducing fragmentation across emergency, inpatient and outpatient care
- Evaluating when to build internally and when external partnerships make sense