Philadelphia, PA – Today, Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) Secretary Jen Smith signed up with the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual special needs Provider (DBHIDS) Commissioner Dr. Jill Bowen, chosen authorities, substance use disorder treatment providers and prevention professionals, health care providers, and other stakeholders for a roundtable conversation on efforts to handle the addiction crisis in Philadelphia.
” The addiction crisis continues to have a devasting effect on the city of Philadelphia, especially in the last couple of years in terms of overdose deaths,” stated Secretary Smith. “Coming to the center of overdose deaths in Pennsylvania is seriously crucial and provides an chance to hear straight from folks in Philadelphia concerning what successes and obstacles they’re presently experiencing and how our several levels of federal government progressing can jointly attend to substance use patterns, variations, and our management of the addiction crisis.”
According to the Department of Health, initial information reports 5,326 lives were lost to an overdose in Pennsylvania in 2021, with 1,274 reported deaths in Philadelphia.
This roundtable concludes 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. DDAP has actually held 13 listening sessions with numerous counties throughout Pennsylvania.
DBHIDS is Philadelphia’s single county authority (SCA) of drug and alcohol services throughout the county. The objective of the department’s addiction services is to provide services and supports that are individualized, developed with and around everyone and family, consisting of level of care evaluation, medically managed inpatient cleansing, residential and non-residential treatment, case management, and youth services.
” DBHIDS is committed to dealing with injury, accomplishing equity, and appealing community every day as we work with our city and community partners to attend to the substance use crisis in the Philadelphia area,” Commissioner Bowen stated. “Close coordination with DDAP, in addition to our network of public and personal partners, is the foundation to making development towards our objective of informing, enhancing, and serving people and communities so that all Philadelphians can grow.”
Considering That Guv Tom Wolf took workplace, DDAP has actually put a heavy focus on minimizing preconception, magnifying 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,
- 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, 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 fight 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 minimizing preconception, magnifying 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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