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Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) announced that the Whitney Young Health Center in Albany, New York will receive $352,083 in federal funding through the Affordable Care Act to improve and expand the delivery of substance abuse services in health centers, with a specific focus on treatment of opioid use disorders in underserved populations.

“No individual seeking treatment for opioid addiction should be denied or delayed by inadequate federal funds supporting their local community health center,” said Tonko. “We have seen great strides locally in our fight to combat opioid abuse, but we must build on those efforts and these funds will go a long way to do just that. I thank President Shippee and his entire team for their hard work to secure this funding, and for everything they do to enhance public health in the Capital Region.”

Tonko is a Vice Co-Chair of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus and has long worked to tackle the growing epidemic of opioid abuse. In 2014, he held a community roundtable to seek community input on eradicating the problem and recently asked the Director of National Drug Policy to host a forum in Upstate New York.

“This is yet another example of the benefits Upstate New York has seen from the Affordable Care Act, more than six years after health care reform was signed into law,” added Tonko.

Administered by the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), these awards to health centers across the country will increase the number of patients screened for substance use disorders and connected to treatment, increase the number of patients with access to MAT for opioid use and other substance use disorder treatment, and provide training and educational resources to help health professionals make informed prescribing decisions.  This $94 million investment is expected to help awardees hire approximately 800 providers to treat nearly 124,000 new patients.

Between 2009 and 2013, 12 upstate New York counties saw the number of heroin overdoses jump by 417 percent and in 2014, New York State had 2,300 drug overdose deaths. The abuse of and addiction to opioids, such as heroin and prescription pain medication, is a serious and increasing public health problem. Approximately 4.5 million people in the United States were non-medical prescription pain reliever users in 2013, and an estimated 289,000 were current heroin users. HHS also estimates the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription pain medications has nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2013, and deaths related to heroin increased 39 percent between 2012 and 2013.

Research demonstrates that a whole-patient approach to treatment through a combination of medication and counseling and behavioral therapies is most successful in treating opioid use disorders. In 2014, over 1.3 million people received behavioral health services at health centers. This represents a 75 percent increase since 2008 and was made possible with support from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Recovery Act.  Today’s funding builds upon and leverages these previous investments by providing support to health centers to improve and expand the delivery of MAT substance abuse services in an integrated primary care/behavioral health model with a specific focus on treatment of opioid use disorders in underserved populations.

To learn more about HRSA’s Health Center Program, visit http://bphc.hrsa.gov/about/index.html

For a full list of health centers in New York, visit http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/        

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