Each May, Mental Health Awareness Month spotlights the challenges and opportunities in behavioral health. While there’s momentum to build a more coordinated crisis care system, many organizations still face barriers, especially when supporting high-need, high-cost populations. This year, we’ll look closer at the barriers preventing individuals from accessing care and how to overcome them for successful care navigation during workforce shortages.
The stakes are high. Without improved care navigation, here’s what we risk:
- More than 28 million U.S. adults with mental illness go untreated each year (NAMI).
- Healthcare workers reporting staffing shortages have nearly 2x the odds of experiencing anxiety and 3x the odds of burnout (CDC).
- Individuals with three or more chronic conditions account for nearly 180 million physician visits per year, many of which involve overlapping behavioral health concerns (CDC).
Today, whole-person healthcare is complex, spanning multiple interconnected systems, from emergency departments and community clinics to justice settings and primary care. To unify these siloed systems with existing workflows, it’s essential to leverage the support of cost-effective and targeted technical and service assistance. There’s evidence that supporting this shift has financial value too – every $1 invested in behavioral healthcare is estimated to yield $5 in total savings (McKinsey).
Progress Is Achievable, But the Status Quo Isn’t Sustainable
Traditional care coordination can often break down due to staffing shortages, manual workflows and disconnected community resources, making it nearly impossible for care teams to keep up. What’s needed now are hybrid workforce models, blending clinical and non-clinical staff and technology-enabled navigation tools that allow care navigators to focus on what matters: relationships and improved health, not paperwork. When supported by real-time insights, automated follow-up tools and additional workforce support via care navigators, providers can act more quickly, compassionately and efficiently.
Care navigators do more than make referrals; they become an extension of care teams.. Equipped with real-time insights, they can quickly connect high-need, high-cost individuals to the proper care during pivotal moments, helping prevent crises and close gaps in care.
To support these healthcare shifts, states and providers need integrated tools that provide seamless physical and behavioral health insight beyond simple data points. True integration should act as a compass, supporting patients through complex journeys. One way to do this is using Intelligent Assist (IA)—technology that enhances decision-making rather than replacing it.
IA supports human decision-making, allowing care teams to spend less time searching for information and more time acting on it. In contrast to traditional AI, which tends to stop at prediction, IA promotes action and can help teams confidently take the next step.
Behavioral healthcare is whole-person health, and it demands a whole-system response that connects people to care, supports clinicians with context and guides every stakeholder through an often-confusing landscape.
As care teams and governments face increased costs, administrative burdens and workforce shortages, a consistent, coordinated approach to helping individuals navigate their care journey is needed. With the right processes, people and tools in place, no one should have to navigate care alone.
For more information on transforming behavioral healthcare coordination, download our strategy checklist or learn more about care navigation.
