Behavioral Health Staff Will Pay for Treatment Strategies

Despite the technology available with electronic health records and staff support, behavioral health professionals want more assistance with treatment strategies. They are even willing to pay for it independently versus having their employer pay it. This information comes from a survey conducted by Praxes Behavioral Health this spring. Over 5,500 mental health professionals from around the country responded to the survey, including 25% paraprofessionals, 44% with Bachelor’s degrees, 24% with Master’s degrees, and 7% with doctorates. 

We first asked the respondents how they currently develop treatment interventions for their clients. They provided multiple options for which they strongly agreed or agreed they use, including:

• Research – 85%
• Past Experience – 71%
• Talking to colleagues – 50%
• List of interventions – 66%
• Their supervisor – 50%
• Internet searches – 66%
• Their electronic health record – 66%

Here is a sample of other responses for which respondents strongly agreed or agreed:

1.      It is challenging to create new and unique interventions: 70%. 

2.     Using the same interventions repeatedly for different clients: 66%.

3.     Difficulty finding interventions for clients with serious emotional problems: 62%.

4.     Lack of time to create unique client interventionists: 52%.

5.     Difficult to take assessment information and generate interventions from it: 64%.

6.     Challenge to tie the diagnosis to treatment interventions: 67%.

Then we asked the respondents if they would like a library of interventions available, to which 72% strongly agreed or agreed. Finally, we asked them if they would be willing to purchase our company’s treatment software Apogee for themselves, and 72% said it was very likely or likely that they would.

These responses indicate that behavioral health professionals lack the time and resources to help them improve their strategies with clients. With documentation requirements and productivity demands, together with high-risk clients, they don’t have the means to treat clients successfully.  The lack of agency support is one reason professionals are leaving agencies to work at telehealth agencies or other environments where their burnout is less. If staff are willing to buy intervention software independently of the agency, perhaps the agency should look at it to improve their treatment efficiencies and outcomes. 

Please contact us if you would like a link to the survey results.