Championing Health Workers’ Access to Mental Health Care

Health workers deserve to access mental health care without fear of losing their job.

Yet, overly invasive mental health questions in licensing and credentialing applications prevent health workers from seeking support and increase the risk of suicide. Such questioning tends to be broad or stigmatizing, such as asking about past mental health care and substance use treatment, which has no bearing on a health workers’ current ability to provide care and may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Together through our ALL IN coalition’s Wellbeing First Champion Challenge program, we’re going state-by-state, health profession-by-health profession to remove these questions and ensure our healthcare workforce knows it’s safe to access mental health care.

Explore the Champions

Become a Champion

“The top barrier by far is stigma in the form of state licensure, malpractice insurance and hospital credentialing requiring answers to invasive questions regarding mental health diagnosis or treatment even for usually simple and very prevalent mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression.”

Hospital Medicine Physician

“I don’t seek mental health care because I often have to apply for a nursing license in a non-compact state. There are often questions about past or current treatment for mental health [conditions].”

Primary Care Nurse

“It is easier to deal with alone than risk losing my job.”

Orthopedic Surgery Physician Assistant

50%

of clinicians reported concerns about their ability to get hired, credentialed, or privileges to practice creates a barrier to access mental health care.

40%

of clinicians reported concerns about professional insurance and license renewals if they seek mental health care.

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Wellbeing First Champions for Licensing

As of September 25, 2026, 10 dental licensure boards, 46 medical licensure boards, 11 nursing licensure boards, and 13 pharmacy licensure boards verified their licensing applications do not include intrusive mental health questions—benefiting nearly 3.6 million licensed health workers.

Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists and Oregon Board of Psychology have also verified their applications—benefiting more than 14,000 health workers.

Click an icon below to view the state of the states for each profession and explore state-specific information by clicking on an individual state.

Wellbeing First Champions for Credentialing

As of September 25, 2026, 1,087 hospitals, 297 freestanding emergency departments, and 337 freestanding surgery centers as well as 1,157 urgent care centers and 1,515 independent primary care clinics verified their credentialing applications do not include intrusive mental health questions—benefiting nearly 558,000 credentialed health workers.

Jackson and Coker Locum Tenens (2024-2026), Envision Healthcare (2024-2026), Allied Physicians Group (2025), Alumni Healthcare Staffing (2026), LocumTenens.com (2025-2026), Talkiatry (2025-2026), Texas Children’s Physicians Group (2025-2026), Vision Radiology (2026), and Vituity (2025) have also verified their applications and forms—benefiting nearly 47,500 health workers.

Additionally, 2 health plans, PacificSource Health Plans (2024) and Providence Health Plan (2025-2026), and 2 professional liability insurers, Curi Insurance (2025-2026) and EmPRO Insurance Company (2025), verified their credentialing applications—benefiting nearly 134,000 health workers.

Click a state on the map below to explore state-specific information.

More Than 75% of hospitals
51-75% of hospitals
26-50% of hospitals
Less Than 26% of hospitals
0% of hospitals

Ready to Become a Wellbeing First Champion?

The Wellbeing First Champion Challenge program supports licensure boards, health systems, medical groups, health plans, and professional liability insurance companies in auditing and revising their licensing and credentialing applications to be free of intrusive mental health questions and stigmatizing language. Once the applications are verified, organizations are recognized as a Wellbeing First Champion.

Register

Create an account to access our free toolkit and resources.

Audit and Revise

Review and revise any invasive or stigmatizing language around mental health in your licensing or credentialing applications.

Verify

Log back in to submit your updated applications for verification with current national best practices.

Communicate

Once verified and recognized, use the Wellbeing First Champion badge and toolkit to inform your workforce that it’s safe to seek mental health care.

Renew

Complete the annual renewal to maintain your recognition and ensure ongoing education to your workforce that it is safe to seek mental health care.

Get Started Now

The Wellbeing First Champion Badge serves as a visual recognition for health workers. When health workers are deciding in which state or organization to work, the Badge serves as a standardized form of communication that an organization’s licensing or credentialing applications are free of intrusive mental health questions and stigmatizing language.

The Wellbeing First Champion Badge includes the year of recognition, so health workers can be assured that an organization remains committed to supporting access to mental health care. Learn more about our verification and recognition approach:

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Policy Change to Culture Change In Action

Becoming a Wellbeing First Champion is a critical first step toward a larger cultural shift, and new findings from a survey conducted in partnership with ALL IN coalition member American Medical Association (AMA) show that this strategy is working.

A Clear Path to Care:

41% of health systems reported a positive impact on the use of mental health support services provided by their organization after making the change.

Easing Concerns Over Liability and Safety:

No health systems reported that making these changes had a negative impact on risk, liability, or patient safety. In fact, 1 in 3 systems (28-30%) reported a positive impact on the organization’s ability to manage risk and liability and on patient safety and health outcomes.

The Power of Communication and Education:

The findings show that of the systems that saw a positive impact on health workers using mental health support services, the majority (64%) of them were the ones who also proactively communicated about the change to their workforce during recruitment and/or onboarding.