The Growing Importance of Behavioral Health in the COVID and Post-COVID Landscape

Behavioral health services have been undervalued and underfunded for many years, making them unprofitable service lines for most health systems. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, suicide rates were at their highest in 30 years, and opioid abuse had reached crisis proportions, along with anxiety and depression,” says Harsh K. Trivedi, MD, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt, the nation’s largest private, nonprofit provider of mental health, substance use, developmental disability, special education and social services. “The pandemic has amplified these trends and exacerbated an already-grim outlook for the provision of mental health services not just in the overall population, but especially in communities of color.”