Pittsburgh, PA – Today, Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) Secretary Jen Smith signed up with the Allegheny County Department of Human Solutions (DHS) Workplace of Behavioral Health’s Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Solutions, substance use disorder treatment providers and prevention professionals, health care providers, and other stakeholders for a roundtable conversation on regional efforts to handle the addiction crisis.
” This an extensive method to discover about regional efforts to handle the addiction crisis in Allegheny County, which has actually lost a destructive number of people to an overdose in the last couple of years alone,” stated Secretary Smith. “It’s likewise an chance to hear straight from folks in this area of the state concerning what successes and difficulties they’re presently experiencing and how our numerous levels of federal government moving on can jointly resolve substance use patterns, while more broadly taking on the behavioral health crisis we are experiencing.”
According to the Department of Health, initial information reports 5,319 lives were lost to an overdose in Pennsylvania in 2021, with 716 reported deaths in Allegheny County.
This roundtable is part of DDAP’s Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Listening Trip created to satisfy with regional leaders, SUD treatment providers, members of the recovery community, and other stakeholders to go over SUD patterns at the regionallevel This trip is in reaction to the boost in overdose deaths and polysubstance use throughout the commonwealth. To date, DDAP has actually held 10 listening sessions with a number of counties throughout Pennsylvania.
The county’s Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Solutions is the single county authority (SCA) of drug and alcohol servicesin Allegheny County The Allegheny County DHS provides and administers openly moneyed human services to county locals. Particular drug and alcohol services consist of case coordination, cleansing and methadone upkeep, out-patient treatment, partial hospitalization, prevention programs, brief- and long-lasting in-patient residential treatment, and trainee assistance programs.
” The pandemic has actually been particularly difficult on those with asubstance use disorder In Allegheny County we have actually been lucky in that we have actually had the capability to adjust and satisfy brand-new and altering service requirements. We are grateful to DDAP for supporting our efforts and for conference with our networkof providers We are delighted to speak with our providers about some brand-new and ingenious services like the Path to Care and Recovery, extra youth services such as youth case management and diversion and broadened recovery real estate,” stated Maisha Howze, Assistant Deputy Director for the Allegheny County Department of Human Solutions Workplace of Behavioral Health.
Considering That Guv Tom Wolf took workplace, DDAP has actually put a heavy focus on lowering preconception, heightening primary prevention efforts, reinforcing Pennsylvania’s drug and alcohol treatment system, and empowering continual recovery by:
- Executing Life Unites Us, the very first-of- its-kind, evidence-based preconception decrease project which reached almost 4 million Pennsylvanians in year one,
- Gathering more than 1 million pounds of prescription medication throughout more than 889 take-back boxes in all 67 Pennsylvania counties,
- Introducing Pennsylvania’s Get Help Now Hotline, which has actually linked an typical of 21 Pennsylvanians per day straight to substance use disorder treatment,
- Broadening gain access to to naloxone in communities through Pennsylvania’s standing order, complimentary circulation days, and mail-order naloxone program,
- Executing Warm Handoff Programs in 95 percent of Pennsylvania’s hospitals and referring more than 27,000 people to SUD treatment through those programs,
- Increasing gain access to to medication-assisted treatment and treatment for uninsured and underinsured people with SUD,
- Granting over $14 million in federal financing to recovery community companies, and
- Broadening a brand-new, complimentary, and private SUD treatment locator resource, Addiction Treatment Locator, Evaluation, and Standards Platform ( ATLAS) to Pennsylvania.
DDAP is the state’s leader of the Interagency Substance Use Action Group, a tool for cooperation throughout state federal government to battle the illness of addiction by focusing on the boost in polysubstance use, stimulant use, and extra SUDs emerging in Pennsylvania. The overarching objectives of the reaction group align with DDAP’s existing tactical plan objectives of lowering preconception, heightening primary prevention, reinforcing the drug and alcohol treatment system, and empowering continual recovery.
To get more information about DDAP’s efforts in combating the addiction crisis, see ddap.pa.gov
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephany Dugan – ra-dapressoffice@pa.gov
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