Pennsylvania’s apparent shortage of mental health providers will be the subject of study by the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, a bipartisan arm of the state’s General Assembly.

The resolution to conduct the study was approved unanimously by the state House, and according to a news release from state representative Jeanne McNeill, who sponsored the resolution,

The study will work to identify factors behind the state shortages, make projections on the number of mental health care providers in Pennsylvania in the future, make recommendations on how to solve the disparity in the number of mental health care providers in rural counties compared to urban and suburban counties and any other solutions needed to stop and reverse the mental health care provider shortage.

Learn more about the mental health provider shortage and the legislature’s search for solutions to that problem in the Central Penn Business Journal article “Panel to study mental health care shortage in PA” and from Representative O’Neill’s news release.