Nebraska Statutes 71-5681. Legislative findings and declarations
The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:
Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 71-5681
- State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
(1) Eighty-eight of Nebraska’s ninety-three counties are classified as mental and behavioral health profession shortage areas by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services;
(2) The Department of Health and Human Services reports that seventy-four percent of the state‘s psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed mental health practitioners live and practice in the urban areas of Omaha and Lincoln, which leaves the remaining seventy-two thousand square miles of Nebraska to be covered by approximately one-fourth of the professionals licensed to practice behavioral health in Nebraska;
(3) Thirty-eight Nebraska counties have one or no licensed behavioral health professional; and
(4) Reductions in federal funding will result in the elimination of over five thousand five hundred behavioral health patient visits in rural Nebraska.