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Arizona’s future prosperity depends on wellness and positive mental health. The COVID pandemic crushed us. Stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, substance abuse, burnout, absenteeism, suicidal thoughts, and lack of job engagement damaged our community’s cohesiveness, economic health, and productivity.

And mental health challenges continue to escalate in today’s hypercompetitive environment, inflationary uncertainty, polarized politics, technological job obsolescence, supply chain risks, and pressures to upgrade workforce skills.

The Wake-up Call

Arizona ranks an appalling 49th, as measured by the high rate of mental illness and low access to care (2023 State of Mental Health in America). Our mental health system is struggling to keep up with tremendous service demand, particularly for low-income, minority, elderly, and student populations.

We Must Act Now

No single organization can address this complex challenge alone. We must collaborate decisively across healthcare, government, business, education, and non-profit organizations.

The best strategy to achieve a positive mental health and wellness culture in the workplace, schools, and communities is through collaborative action.

After extensive discussions with Tucson area leaders in the mental health field, three priorities for collaborative action emerged:

Priority No. 1: Accelerate Training

First and foremost, mental health professionals must be available to handle the exploding demand for services.

Arizona faces a severe shortage of workers in mental health occupations — presently, there are over 4,600 unfilled positions state-wide and 560 in Tucson.

It is a profession with high stress, long hours, and low pay.

Healthcare providers are having a hard time recruiting and retaining staff.

The consequence is “health deserts” in urban and rural areas, lengthy appointment waits times, and growing health injustice.

Businesses, governments, universities, community colleges, and healthcare providers need to forge innovative training partnerships.

Attracting students, and fast-tracking them through an accelerated curriculum, job internships, and certification status — can produce remarkable benefits.

An outstanding example is the Pima Joint Technical Education District (JTED), which works jointly with businesses and multiple school districts. JTED is building an Innovative Learning Campus which will house the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Center for Health and Medical Careers, offering programs in licensed nursing assistants, medical assistants, and public health.

To make mental health careers attractive, higher pay will be essential, and changes in insurance reimbursement rates for healthcare providers are needed.

Priority No. 2: Integrate Social Determinants of Health

Let us build on existing community pillars of strength to cooperate and collaborate for a comprehensive solution to the crisis.

Managing the underlying factors contributing to behavioral health disorders and inequities is crucial for developing sustainable solutions.

Let us energetically address existing crises of unemployment, poverty, inequality, and social exclusion that cause distress and impact an individual’s health and wellness.

A fragmented healthcare system with delivery siloes of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health will only lead to suboptimal outcomes, recidivism, and inconsistent continuity of care. A coordinated approach with other sectors is needed to address underlying social determinants of health, such as housing, transportation, nutrition, employment training, and social and spiritual support.

 Priority No. 3. Leverage Digital Technology

Telehealth and mobile health applications soared during COVID.

Increased R&D investment in health is a precursor of the coming tsunami of digital devices, real-time data collection, and artificial intelligence-driven diagnostics, treatment, monitoring, and deep learning applications.

Our leading researchers and innovators are working on new healthcare models that are collaborative, preventive, personalized, participatory, immersive, on-demand, data intense, and value-driven.

Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona are well-positioned anchors for establishing Arizona as a Health and Wellness Tech Hub for conducting applied research, designing demonstrations, commercializing intellectual property, nurturing entrepreneurial startups, and creating jobs.

We believe this is the moment for action and the transformation of the behavioral health ecosystem so that more Arizonans can live healthy, prosperous, and flourishing lives.

Conrad Plimpton and Egils Milbergs are Founding Directors of the non-profit Healthy Communities and Wellness Alliance www.azflourishing.org

Check out this outstanding webinar:

Overcoming Arizona’s Behavioral Health Crisis: Roadmap to Wellness.

What is Behavioral Health?

Behavioral health is the connection between a person's behaviors and overall well-being. It includes various conditions and disorders such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, substance use disorders, and mental conditions impacted by social determinants of health (SdoH).

Behavioral health concerns how these conditions affect a person's daily life, relationships with others, and ability to function effectively. Behavioral health encompasses preventing, diagnosing, and treating these conditions and focuses on improving a person's overall quality of life.