Extending the Hospice Mission – and Tapping Market Demand – by Investing in Behavioral Health

Photo credit: Norman_Gil

Today, I want to talk about mental health — because mine is shot! OK, that’s a joke. I’m fine, though I do see a psychologist weekly for PTSD treatments, and it has vastly improved my quality of life.

Behavioral health care services are essential to many people in the United States and demand is going strong. In the midst of this, several hospices are stepping up to provide an expanded suite of mental health services that go beyond traditional bereavement care. I don’t think this is common enough to be considered a trend, but it would be great if it became one. For now, a few hospices here and there are moving in that direction.

I covered one of these yesterday on Hospice News: Community Hospice and Health Services in California. I won’t recap the entire article, but here are some of the essentials:

In addition to its bereavement care program, the nonprofit launched Hope Counseling Mental Health Services to provide talk therapy for community members needing additional support. The center is staffed by licensed clinical social workers and a marriage and family therapist, according to Monica Ojcius, director of strategic development at Community Hospice.

Ojcius said the initiative reflects the organization’s broader goal of delivering whole-person care. Clients at the center seek treatment for anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and other concerns. The center currently serves 107 clients and has treated more than 500 people over the past five years, Ojcius said. Those served include children, adolescents and adults.

Community Hospice is not alone in this. The first time I saw a hospice do something like this was Maine-based Androscoggin Home Health Care + Hospice, which in 2022 acquired behavioral health care company Care & Comfort for an undisclosed sum. Androscoggin has since rebranded as Andwell Health Partners.

According to CEO Ken Albert, the decision to purchase the company was based on four key factors: Care & Comfort’s strong community reputation, its financial performance, low employee turnover, and staff members’ positive view of the organization.

The decision to add these services to the organization’s portfolio followed a community health needs assessment that the Internal Revenue Service requires hospitals to conduct every two years, Albert said.

Over the last three assessment cycles, behavioral health has consistently ranked among the top 10 most pressing needs in each of Maine’s counties, with demand continuing to grow. The 2021 assessment identified behavioral health as either the No. 1 or No. 2 community health need in all counties, with particularly high need in rural areas.

This reflects national trends, in which demand for behavioral health care is rising. The share of adults reporting they received mental health counseling in the past year rose from 10% in 2019 to 13% in 2022, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Over the same period, the proportion of adults who said they took prescription medication for mental health conditions increased from 16% to 19%.

This marks not only a growing need in U.S. communities, but a good business opportunity. A huge proportion of the demand for mental health services goes unfulfilled. So room exists for hospices to expand into this arena. It also opens up opportunities to work with new payers, including commercial plans and Medicaid.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has called the lack of sufficient behavioral health care resources a “mental health crisis.” As of December 2, 2025, 40% (137 million) of the U.S. population lives in a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area, the agency reported.

In 2024, approximately 62 million U.S. adults (23%) had a mental illness and nearly half of them did not receive treatment (48%), the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported.

Another hospice that has invested in this space is MiraSol Health in South Carolina. Just last June, the company launched its own mental health program called Rays of Hope Behavioral Health. The program provides both individual and group therapy sessions, offered in person and through a secure telehealth platform. Through Rays of Hope, MiraSol’s licensed therapists support patients and families coping with anticipatory grief, caregiver stress, loss and other challenges associated with chronic, serious or terminal illness.

The home health and hospice provider VNA Health also developed a behavioral health program internally, citing the widespread gaps in need and hospices’ longstanding mission to provide psychosocial support. Programs like these expand that mission beyond a providers’ hospice patients and their families.

I applaud hospices that are seeking new ways to serve their communities and meet unfulfilled health care needs, especially since they are also taking on new challenges. The staffing shortage that afflicts hospice providers, for example, also plagues the behavioral health space. Hospices also have to develop new skill sets and partnerships to support their mental health programs.

Nevertheless, behavioral health has all the makings of a solid investment and a noble expansion of the hospice mission.

What do you think? Should more hospices be doing this? Let me know in the comments or in the Notes section!

And if you’re interested in staying up to date on the latest news and trends in the behavioral health sector, you can subscribe to Hospice News’ sister publication, Behavioral Health Business.