Center for
Integrative Neuroscience

The Behavioral Health Workforce Observatory · August 2026

Six studies of the people who make behavioral health care work.

License and enrollment records can tell us who holds a credential. They cannot tell us who can find supervision, who gets hired, how long enrollment takes, what happens after a referral, or whether a new care model can actually be staffed.

The Behavioral Health Workforce Observatory studies the people and organizations behind those missing numbers, reading license records across eighteen states and asking the questions the records cannot answer. The questions are national. Where rules differ by state or payer, a study begins with a defined first fielding and expands from there. Answer one in five to ten minutes. Respondents receive the findings first.

National questions. State-specific rules. Evidence built state by state.

Medicare can be studied nationally. Licensure, Medicaid, commercial payer policy, and local workforce conditions usually cannot, so those studies begin with a defined first fielding and expand from there.

Where do you sit in the workforce?

I provide care

Licensed clinicians · limited-license clinicians · physicians · nurse practitioners · physician assistants

I employ people

Private and group practices · community clinics · hospitals · health systems

I build the workforce

Clinical supervisors · graduate programs · training programs

I make the system run

Practice managers · credentialing and billing staff · administrators

Different seats. One system. The six studies below ask what the administrative records cannot.

The practice study

Could a clinician you already employ do a different job? If reimbursement changes are causing you to pause hiring, reduce hours, or rethink limited-license positions, this is the study asking what is happening to your practice. About ten minutes · first fielding: Michigan · expanding by state Comes with The BHCM Pivot Playbook, free either way

The integration study

What happens to a patient after the referral leaves the practice? About seven minutes · first fielding: Michigan · expanding by state Comes with The CoCM Startup Brief, free either way

The credentialing study

How much staff time does enrollment actually take? About five minutes · first fielding: Michigan · expanding by state Comes with The Credentialing Cheat-Sheet, free either way

The supervision study

A license roster counts eligible supervisors. Who is available? About six minutes · first fielding: Michigan · expanding by state Comes with The Supervisor Eligibility Checker, free either way

The trainee study

What happens in the distance between degree and full license? About five minutes · first fielding: Michigan · expanding by state Comes with The Career Path Guide, free either way

The Medicare study

What gets in the way when clinicians and practices try to put the model into operation? About five minutes · national Comes with The Medicare Enrollment Cheat-Sheet, free either way

Every study leads with its document, free and ungated, and the surveys open as each study is released. Findings go to respondents first. If you want the findings without taking a survey, one line to info@integrative-neuroscience.com is enough.

The exchange

Five to ten minutes in. Findings back first.

YOU ANSWER FINDINGS RETURN TO RESPONDENTS FIRST THE GUIDES IMPROVE five to ten minutes before broader publication later editions get sharper What the field answers shapes the next question, and the next edition.
Center for Integrative Neuroscience · the Observatory

The ObservatoryThe Center asks what the records cannot answer. Findings go to respondents first.