Abstract

Nebraska faces a critical shortage of mental health practitioners which limits communities’ access to mental healthcare. Given preliminary research on the links between mental health practitioners’ financial stress and poor work and health outcomes, there is a critical need to determine how economic marginalization affects Nebraska-based practitioners’ mental health and the sustainability of their work.

Using a grounded theory design, this study will identify how financial stress and precarity develop for mental health practitioners and explore if and how they impact practitioners’ work satisfaction and personal mental health.

Results have the potential to boost interventions that promote Nebraska-based practitioners’ well-being and retention.