Training and Education in Professional Psychology, Vol 19(4), Nov 2025, 263-269; doi:10.1037/tep0000533
Disadvantaged communities are common in the United States and face disproportionate mental health burden. The psychology workforce has a critical role in addressing their burden, but it is not clear whether it is geographically positioned to play this role. Identifying states with high disadvantage yet an inadequate psychology workforce can allow for more intentional efforts to redress imbalances at the state level. Data regarding the psychology workforce (e.g., adequacy of supply relative to demand) as well as markers of a state’s disadvantage (e.g., proportion living below poverty line) were extracted from five national data sets to examine state-level differences. There was a strong negative association between the proportion of a state’s population living in disadvantaged communities and the adequacy of its psychology workforce, although some states defied this trend. The psychology workforce is not well positioned geographically to meet the mental health of one third of the U.S. population living in disadvantaged communities. Stakeholders at the state and national level will need more intentional policies to redress the imbalance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)