This dataset contains the geographic Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) federal designations for Primary Care, Mental Health, and Dental Health. This California-specific data is a subset and snapshot of the complete national data maintained by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). For the full set of variables and most up-to-date information, visit https://data.hrsa.gov/data/download.

This dataset contains the geographic Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) federal designations for Primary Care, Mental Health, and Dental Health. This California-specific data is a subset and snapshot of the complete national data maintained by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). For the full set of variables and most up-to-date information, visit https://data.hrsa.gov/data/download.

This indicator provides information about health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) for mental health services as determined by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Each designated area includes multiple census tracts.HPSAs can be geographic areas, populations, or health care facilities that have been designated as having a shortage of health professionals. Geographic HPSAs have a shortage of providers for an entire population in a defined geographic area. Population HPSAs have a shortage of providers for a subpopulation in a defined geographic area, such as low-income populations, people experiencing homelessness, and migrant farmworker populations. In Los Angeles County, facility HPSAs include:•Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs); •FQHC Look-A-Likes (LALs); •Indian Health Service, Tribal Health, and Urban Indian Health Organizations; •correctional facilities; • and some other facilities. For these indicators, we include HPSAs in Los Angeles County with statuses listed as “Designated” or “Proposed for Withdrawal” (but not withdrawn yet). Due to the nature of the designation process, a census tract may be designated as any combination of geographic and population HPSAs and three categories of care (i.e., primary, dental, and mental health care). Facility HPSAs may also cover multiple types of care.State Primary Care Offices submit applications to HRSA to designate certain areas within counties as HPSAs for primary care, dental, and mental health services. HRSA’s National Health Service Corps calculates HPSA scores to determine priorities for assignment of clinicians. The scores range from 0 to 25 for mental health, where higher scores indicate greater priority. All HPSA categories shared three scoring criteria: (1) population-to-provider ratio, (2) percent of population below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level, and (3) travel time to the nearest source of care outside the HPSA designation area. Each category also has additional criteria that go into the scores. Specifically, mental health HPSA scoring includes elderly ratio (percent of people over age 65), youth ratio (percent of people under age 18), alcohol abuse prevalence, and substance abuse prevalence. Note: if an area is not designated as an HPSA, it does not mean it is not underserved, only that an application has not been filed for the area and that an official designation has not been given.HPSA designations help distribute participating health care providers and resources to high-need communities.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.