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sud treatment

Today, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) was joined by national nonprofit Shatterproof and substance use disorder treatment provider Gaudenzia to announce the expansion of the free and confidential Addiction Treatment Locator, Assessment, and Standards Platform (ATLAS) to Pennsylvania.

ATLAS evaluates addiction treatment facilities’ use of evidence-based best practices based on the Shatterproof National Principles of Care, includes an assessment to understand the appropriate level of care, and offers an easy-to-use dashboard to allow those in need and their loved ones to search for and compare facilities using criteria such as location, services offered, and insurance accepted so they can find the best treatment for their unique needs. ATLAS is fully available in English and Spanish.

“We are grateful for ATLAS and the team at Shatterproof for making the submission process so easy,” said Dr. Dale Klatzker, President and CEO at Gaudenzia, Inc. “It is vital that we reduce barriers to treatment, and this tool provides an easy way for those in need to seek and quickly find a treatment option that will work best for them.”

Forty Gaudenzia treatment locations and a total of 515 substance use disorder treatment facilities across the state have submitted their information to be included in ATLAS. An additional open enrollment period for facilities who missed the first deadline will be available in fall 2022.

Today, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing released the results of its first comprehensive consumer survey on access to mental health and substance use care, showing there are significant unmet needs, far more than physical health needs.

Results from the 2022 Access to Care survey, conducted by The Harris Poll, show a staggering 43 percent of U.S. adults who say they needed substance use or mental health care in the past 12 months but did not receive that care. They identified numerous barriers that stand between them and needed treatment. You can download the full survey results here.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department is highlighting its continued work to ensure that insurers operating within the commonwealth are following state and federal parity laws, allowing those faced with mental health or substance use disorders continued access to needed care.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), health insurance plans and insurers must offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits that are no less restrictive than their coverage for medical or surgical care. These benefits include quantitative limitations (copays, deductibles, and limits on inpatient or outpatient visits that are covered) and non-quantitative limitations (pre-authorizations, providers available through a plan’s network, and what a plan deems “medically necessary”).

Read the full press release.

Considering the increasing rates of overdose deaths in the United States and to ensure that all people have access to a robust continuum of care and evidence-based services to improve their health, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing continues to build support for a wide range of overdose prevention and harm reduction strategies. A few program and resource examples of this include:

In addition to funding 16 harm reduction pilot projects and efforts to increase the number of sites next year as well as to branch out to mental health and substance use treatment partners, the National Council has also recently become a partner of the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance (TA) Center.

National Council is conducting a survey and key informant interviews to better understand how to inform program implementation with its members. National Council requests that respondents complete this survey to help the organization understand the technical assistance needs related to harm reduction among prevention, treatment, and recovery organizations. The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and is anonymous.

By completing this survey by close of business June 3, respondents will also have the chance to enter an optional raffle to win a free registration for NatCon23, the National Council’s annual conference, which is being held in Los Angeles, CA.

Please contact Yoon Hyung Choi with any questions or to express interest in being interviewed as a key informant.

With this week’s signing of the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) expects its budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 to be at least equal to the current year’s budget of $378 million. Before the signing of the act, DDAP’s budget was $317 million. The difference was the result of a $60 million gap in a state opioid response (SOR) grant that has been restored. The majority of DDAP’s funding comes from the federal government, as opposed to state dollars.

As part of the Federal Appropriations Act, $3.9 billion has been budgeted for substance use treatment, including continued funding for opioid prevention and treatment, recovery, and tribal focused treatment efforts. This includes $1.85 billion for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG); $1.525 billion for SOR Grants; $34.9 million for Pregnant & Postpartum Women; $13 million for Building Communities of Recovery; and $101 million for Medication Assisted Treatment.

In its Senate Appropriations Hearing yesterday, DDAP said that, although the exact amount of Pennsylvania’s SOR grant for FY 2023 was not yet know, it expected it to be at least as much as the current year’s grant, which is $178 million.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a favorable advisory opinion regarding contingency management (CM), an evidence-based approach for treating substance use disorders (SUD) that uses financial incentives to reward healthy behavior, such as abstinence and treatment retention, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

CM has been shown to be an effective approach for those with SUD in more than 100 randomized controlled trials over 50 years. Evidence shows it can double abstinence rates across opioids, stimulants, alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine, compared to usual care alone. It is the most effective and most evidence-based treatment for stimulant use disorders. In 2021, the Biden Administration declared advancing CM among its drug policy priorities.

The advisory opinion clears the way for CM for routine use in publicly funded substance use treatment programs and healthcare facilities under federal reimbursement, including Medicaid.

Read the full press release.