$10 Million Dollars to Help Close The Treatment Gap
Real Cost of PrisonsBALTIMORE—A top national addiction expert will head a new national initiative that the Open Society Institute is launching to help close the country’s drug addiction treatment gap, enabling more Americans who need drug addiction treatment to get it.
Victor Capoccia, who led the addiction prevention and treatment team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and who previously ran a Massachusetts substance-abuse agency, will lead the new initiative, supported by $10 million from philanthropist George Soros to ensure that more Americans have access to drug addiction treatment.
More than 22.2 million Americans suffer from addiction or dependence to alcohol and drugs, according to the most recent national survey on drug use published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA). More than 80 percent of Americans who need help are unable to get addiction treatment, either due to lack of health insurance, inadequate insurance or lack of treatment slots in communities.
The $10 million initiative will seek to close the treatment gap by underwriting local and regional education and advocacy efforts across the country to expand programs and health insurance for the uninsured. The goal is to expand comprehensive treatment systems and to improve the quality of treatment. The effort will borrow lessons from the highly successful treatment model in Baltimore.
1 comment:
I am very excited about this initiative that actually puts $$$ into treating mental illness that saves the government money (treatment is so much cheaper than incarceration!). In addition, to being more humane...
I hope there are plans at evaluation of the programs although no one in this country seems to listen to evidence-based research.
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