Building a better mental health care system
Over the past several years we’ve been working to build a better model of mental health care at Kaiser Permanente and in California.
We are growing our mental health and addiction medicine workforce, expanding capacity, and improving patient access.
Kaiser Permanente’s unique integrated care model is foundational to our ability to coordinate our members’ care across our system so our patients can focus on their mental health and healing. Our mental health professionals have a critical role in our vision of providing high-quality, integrated mental health care.
Building our mental health and addiction medicine workforce
- Launched the Mental Health Scholars Academy, a $30 million investment. There are nearly 250 students currently enrolled and 149 graduates. We are proud that 97% of graduates have chosen to work at Kaiser Permanente.
- The Southern California-based Behavioral Health Training Institute supports training for students before they complete their master’s degrees, focusing on the required supervised clinical hours.
- Hired 63% of BHTI graduates into Kaiser Permanente positions in psychiatry and addiction medicine in 2023.
Improving patient access
- Created one Southern California call center number (1-833-KP-WITH-U) and hired 200+ call center agents
- Placed Mental Health and Addiction Medicine options on the front page of kp.org for ease of navigation
- Grew our workforce of mental health professionals in California by 22% since 2020 — adding nearly 1,000 mental health professionals to our workforce. The positive impact is dramatically demonstrated by the timely visits that are available for our members for initial and follow-up visits.
Delivering high-quality, integrated mental health care that helps members
We provide feedback-informed care, helping our members who need us most:
- “I had grown to really respect the two therapists involved and really respected the other people who were there sharing openly. I did a lot of hard work. And I wasn’t expecting to.”
- “The care and treatment I received was nothing less than extraordinary.”
- “In the beginning, it felt like I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and my situation was hopeless, but week after week, working with them helped boost my confidence and inspired me to keep pushing forward. I am eternally grateful for their patience and kindness.”
- “My life is not over; it is restarting with a new hope.”