Trends in behavioral health care service provision by community health centers, 1998-2007.

Objective: The federal government boosted support for community health centers in medically underserved areas in 2002-2007. This investigation compared trends in behavioral health services provided by community health centers nationwide during the first several years of that initiative with immediately prior trends.

Methods: Data were extracted from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Uniform Data System on community health centers for 1998-2007 (2007, N=1,067). Regression analyses revealed trends in individual community health centers' likelihood of providing on-site specialty mental health care, crisis services, and substance abuse treatment. Aggregate data were used to show national trends in numbers of behavioral health encounters, patients, and encounters per patient.

Results: The number of federally funded community health centers increased 43% between 2001 and 2007, from 748 to 1,067, over twice the annual growth rate between 1998 and 2001. However, trends in individual community health centers' likelihood of providing different types of behavioral health care were generally consistent across the two time periods. In 2007, 77% of community health centers offered specialty mental health services, 20% offered 24-hour crisis intervention services, and 51% offered substance abuse treatment. The mean number of mental health encounters per mental health patient at community health centers in 2007 was 2.9.

Conclusions: The behavioral health care safety net has widened through rapid recent growth in the number of community health centers as well as a continuing increase in the proportion offering specialty mental health services.