Predictors for Reducing Mental Health Distress in Georgia: Evidence from 2022 County Health Rankings Data
Abstract
Since the recent pandemic, mental health issues in Georgia and around the country have been on the rise. We explore the predictors that could decrease mental health distress in communities within Georgia. Using the 2022 County Health Rankings data for 159 counties in the state of Georgia, we find that counties with more mental health providers experience a significant decline in mental health distress. Moreover, the negative relationship between the number of mental health providers and mental health distress is even stronger when these counties have more access to broadband internet. We find these results using ordinary least square regression while controlling for various other predictors. Our paper has several implications for Georgia’s public health policies. Our findings suggest the importance of mental health services and resources in Georgia, as it could help reduce mental health distress. To increase the number of mental health providers, the state of Georgia will have to strategically place policies that can increase the supply of mental-health providers within Georgia, and attract talent from other states. To increase accessibility to counseling within the state of Georgia, universities need to increase the number of mental health programs, where students accrue supervised clinical hours through internships to be prepared to provide services upon graduation. Furthermore, easing the burden for licensure requirements of the out of state providers will also increase services. Our findings also suggest that broadband internet is another important factor that plays a role in reducing mental-health distress. This is true, especially in the post-Covid world, where tele health services have become prevalent and widely used with patients which can been seen remotely, such as in the case of mental-health counseling services. Overall, our paper makes several recommendations for policy makers, universities, and industry partners to improve the mental health issues in Georgia.
Keywords
Mental health distress, telehealth, training programs, outreach programs, accessibility
Predictors for Reducing Mental Health Distress in Georgia: Evidence from 2022 County Health Rankings Data
N/A
Since the recent pandemic, mental health issues in Georgia and around the country have been on the rise. We explore the predictors that could decrease mental health distress in communities within Georgia. Using the 2022 County Health Rankings data for 159 counties in the state of Georgia, we find that counties with more mental health providers experience a significant decline in mental health distress. Moreover, the negative relationship between the number of mental health providers and mental health distress is even stronger when these counties have more access to broadband internet. We find these results using ordinary least square regression while controlling for various other predictors. Our paper has several implications for Georgia’s public health policies. Our findings suggest the importance of mental health services and resources in Georgia, as it could help reduce mental health distress. To increase the number of mental health providers, the state of Georgia will have to strategically place policies that can increase the supply of mental-health providers within Georgia, and attract talent from other states. To increase accessibility to counseling within the state of Georgia, universities need to increase the number of mental health programs, where students accrue supervised clinical hours through internships to be prepared to provide services upon graduation. Furthermore, easing the burden for licensure requirements of the out of state providers will also increase services. Our findings also suggest that broadband internet is another important factor that plays a role in reducing mental-health distress. This is true, especially in the post-Covid world, where tele health services have become prevalent and widely used with patients which can been seen remotely, such as in the case of mental-health counseling services. Overall, our paper makes several recommendations for policy makers, universities, and industry partners to improve the mental health issues in Georgia.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gapha-conference/2023/2023/162
