Doylestown, PA – Today, Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) Secretary Jen Smith signed up with the Bucks County Drug & & Alcohol Commission, Inc. (BCDAC), chosen authorities, 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.
” The southeast area of the state is one of the hardest struck locations of Pennsylvania in terms of overdose deaths,” stated Secretary Smith. “What’s working, what’s not working, and how the state can support regional efforts are truly what this chance isabout The responses to those questions will help us figure out how, progressing, we can jointly deal with substance use patterns.”
According to the Department of Health, initial information reports 5,319 lives were lost to an overdose in Pennsylvania in 2021, with 165 reported deaths in Bucks County.
This roundtable is part of DDAP’s Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Listening Trip developed to fulfill with regional leaders, SUD treatment providers, members of the recovery community, and other stakeholders to talk about SUD patterns at the regionallevel This trip is in action 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 BCDAC is the single county authority (SCA) of alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention, intervention and treatment and recovery assistance servicesin Bucks County The SCA, produced in 1973, subcontracts with numerous community- based certified firms to provide these crucial services for Bucks County homeowners.
” We invite the conversation with management from DDAP concerning BCDAC’s achievements and collaborations,” stated Diane Rosati, BCDAC Executive Director. “The COVID-19 pandemic brought substantial obstacles to homeowners with substance use disorders along with to the drug and alcohol service system, and this is an chance to share highlights of how BCDAC’s prevention, treatment and recovery supports have actually changed and even more dedicated to making sure effective services.
Because Guv Tom Wolf took workplace, DDAP has actually put a heavy focus on minimizing preconception, heightening primary prevention efforts, enhancing 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,
- Releasing 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, totally free 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, totally free, 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 Reaction Group, a tool for partnership 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 action group align with DDAP’s existing tactical plan objectives of minimizing preconception, heightening primary prevention, enhancing the drug and alcohol treatment system, and empowering continual recovery.
To get more information about DDAP’s efforts in combating the addiction crisis, go to ddap.pa.gov
MEDIA CONTACT: Stephany Dugan – ra-dapressoffice@pa.gov
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