According to SAMHSA, nearly 50 million Americans meet diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders, yet significant workforce shortages continue to limit access to care. Our national initiative, funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts, aims to address one aspect of this challenge by developing a national framework. This framework will provide recommendations to move towards consistency in how behavioral health/substance use paraprofessional roles are regulated, educated, and reimbursed.
In this recorded webinar, Bowen Center Director Dr. Hannah Maxey shares initial findings from our 50-state policy review and wage economic analysis, discusses the current landscape of paraprofessional roles, and outlines opportunities for stakeholders to contribute to framework development.
The physician workforce is critical in ensuring access to health care across Indiana. In a presentation to the Indiana Society of Physician Recruiters, Bowen Center Director Dr. Hannah Maxey will present an overview of the state’s physician workforce’s current status and future outlook.
The presentation will include an overview of the latest Indiana physician workforce data including a description of total supply, geographic distribution and primary practice setting. In addition to this supply data, Dr. Maxey will present demand data from Indiana Department of Workforce Development and educational data from the recent Indiana Physician Pipeline to Practice report. Additional topics will include physician wellness and burnout, artificial intelligence, and highlights from the 2025 Legislative Session.
The Bowen Center’s Assistant Director for Data and Research Sierra Vaughn recently spoke in a panel of experts on the intersection of addiction and policy. This was part of a webinar titled Reflections and Insight on Response to a Public Health Crisis: The Addictions Grand Challenge.
In her section of the panel she briefly outlined the various aspects of Bowen’s data-related work that intersects with addiction, addiction counseling, and behavioral health, providing a quick overview of the data landscape in Indiana on this critically important topic. The entire presentation is worth a watch, featuring contributions from several experts in the field.
Bowen Director Dr. Hannah Maxey was the featured speaker at a CTS Talks event Sept. 12 at Christian Theological Seminary, giving a lecture on the intersection of faith communities and mental health. Her talk, titled “Mental Health: The Crisis and a Call to Action for People of Faith,” offered a timely discussion on the critical issue of mental health in America and its significant impact on individuals and communities of faith. Dr. Maxey explored how faith communities are uniquely positioned to respond to this crisis, challenging attendees to become ambassadors of love and hope.
CTS Talks is known for its TED Talk-style lectures that bring together intellectual curiosity and community reflection.
Related: Indiana’s mental health care is in crisis, with both real-life impacts on the everyday lives of millions of Hoosiers and for the long-term economic outlook of our state. Bowen has developed a mental health workforce Playbook that tackles that crisis head-on, offering concrete policy solutions to increase the number of mental health care workers in Indiana. To learn more about the Playbook and its strategies, visit The Playbook home page.
Bowen Assistant Director of Data and Research Sierra Vaughn
Bowen’s Assistant Director of Data and Research Sierra Vaughn gave a presentation on rural health care in Indiana to the Indiana Rural Health Association on August 1.
Mirroring national trends, rural health care in Indiana faces significant challenges. The state has seen hospital closures, with 52 rural hospitals remaining as of 2024, and 25% of open hospitals experiencing service reductions. Workforce shortages are acute, particularly in mental health, where rural areas have two-thirds fewer behavioral health professionals than urban areas. Additionally, 35 Indiana counties lack a birthing hospital, impacting maternal care access. These issues are compounded by broader rural health disparities, including slower life expectancy increases and higher mortality rates for conditions like heart disease and cancer compared to urban areas.
Read more about the challenges faced by rural hospitals in Indiana and nationwide as well as potential solutions in Vaughn’s presentation here:
We’ve re-thought and redesigned our data reports, and are moving to a web-based design, which allows for more interactivity and lets users directly download the underlying data. Let us know your thoughts on this new, web-first interactive data report design by sending an email to bowenctr@iu.edu.
