A population group, facility, or geographic area where community residents have substandard access to mental health care services can be designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as a health professional shortage area (HPSA).  This designation reflects an environment where the HPSA has too few mental health care practitioners serving the community relative to the size of its population.  The HRSA reports that, as of March 31, 2025, nearly 122.4 million Americans lived in communities where there was a mental health care shortfall. That number included over 7.7 million residents who lived in mental health care shortfall areas in the five-state Rocky Mountain region. To eliminate that mental health care shortfall, the HRSA estimates that Rocky Mountain region HPSAs would need 287 additional mental health care practitioners. A closer examination of HRSA data reveals the following state-level details about the mental health care shortfall in the Rocky Mountain region as of March 31, 2025:

The Mental Health Care Shortfall in the Rocky Mountain Region

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
CO	78	2,744,353	110
ID	63	1,210,451	48
MT	105	772,338	38
UT	57	2,430,542	68
WY	23	566,918	23
Region	326	7,724,602	287
U.S.	6,418	122,383,988	6,202

(1) HRSA-designated Geographic Units, Population Groups, and Facilities with a mental health care shortfall

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Mental Health Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, March 31, 2025 (HRSA)