Addiction treatment aid needs a pandemic boost

The big news in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is the $1,400 stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits many New York residents will receive. Just as important — but largely overlooked — are provisions that strengthen our health care safety net with expanded access to insurance and more money for behavioral health needs like substance use programs.

That’s great. But the key is how the state chooses to spend its share.

To me, the most important areas are investment in our workforce, infrastructure and health benefits costs for nonprofits like Phoenix House, which was founded in 1967 and currently treats some 2,500 men and women across nine sites in New York state alone. We provide assessment, detox programs, residential and recovery services and special programs and services for women.

But the state withheld some funding to us last year and, partly due to social-distancing requirements, we went from 86 percent occupancy in our facilities to as low as 48 percent.

Mental health is a serious concern during the pandemic. Research shows an increase in suicide, opioid addiction, and other mental health issues. More than 40 states reported increases in opioid deaths, according to the American Medical Association, and a New York Times survey found drug deaths increased by double digits during the pandemic.

So in the area of workforce, we must invest in education, training and raising salaries for those who work in substance use disorder and mental health. Since the bulk of these jobs cannot be done remotely, we must incentivize these essential workers to stay in the workforce.

As I see it, this means things like student loan forgiveness tied to work commitment, hazard pay for those who worked through the pandemic, financial incentives to encourage vaccinations among reluctant staff, and incentives to eliminate medication delivery obstacles between residential and opioid treatment providers.

We also need more money to train staff, increase the number of recovery centers and encourage employers to hire people in recovery. We also must provide incentives to get licensed, credentialed staff to work in underserved neighborhoods, provide parity among primary health care, mental health and substance abuse disorder systems and help nonprofits funded by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) obtain affordable health insurance.

At Phoenix House, we have a 62.5 percent completion rate, but — like many institutions — we have serious infrastructure problems that require substantial investment. Many of our buildings across the state are in various stages of disrepair and the private sector vastly outspends us.

Although we may be seeing the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, there is still a great need for COVID -sustainable environments, including larger bedrooms, group space for counseling and investments in air filtration systems.

It is imperative that we receive enough funding to bring our buildings up to date and ensure the health and safety of all workers and our clients in these perilous times.

Last, but certainly not least, we must make it possible for not-for-profits funded by OASAS to buy into health insurance packages available to state workers. The cost of doing business in substance use and mental health treatment has skyrocketed. Our health benefits costs have increased 36 percent and some commercial insurance packages don’t even want to cover us. Programs like ours just can’t operate as well as we should due to these costs.

The American Rescue Plan is a great stimulus for most people and health care services across the country. But we felt very forgotten at the start of the pandemic in many ways, and then had to endure decreased funding and limitations on the services we could provide.

We cannot let that happen again.