Resource Corner Blog

Governor Hochul (NY) Secures 19 Million for OASAS

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New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, declared that the state successfully secured $19 million in federal grants via the SAPT Block Grant program for the upkeep of the addiction workforce in NY State. 

Prevention, treatment, and recovery organizations licensed by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) will obtain these funds towards the sustenance of incentives like scholarships, loan compensations, and various initiatives to employ, maintain and reinforce the addiction support personnel in their respective fields. 

Governor Hochul proclaimed how the COVID-19 epidemic has led to unexpected challenges in the State of New York, affecting all dimensions of livelihoods, including the addiction support workers.  The grants will help all workers across the state and allow all New York residents to obtain their most-needed addiction upkeep. 

The Purpose of OASAS to New Yorkers According to Hochul 

OASAS is mandated with the treatment, prevention, and recovery requirements of New York residents affected by alcohol, drug, and gambling. 

OASAS is also tasked with the following obligations: 

  • Observing gambling and drug consumption and abuse tendencies in NY. 
  • Offering detailed education and prevention schedules in over 200 school and community-based organizations. 
  • Improving communal awareness and citizen participation through active communal groups. 
  • Seeking state, private, and federal sources of financing for services. 
  • Connecting clients helped by other supporters and inside the criminal justice structure with obsession services. 
  • Educating and training individuals handling clients. 
  • Checking the authenticity of alcoholism and drug abuse counselors, including prevention experts and prevention consultants.   

Ariene Gonzalez-Sanchez, the OASAS commissioner, said that the NY State workforce has always been a strong and dedicated one. Notably, they have always dedicated most of their time to helping individuals undergoing addiction. She claimed that, even as they continue monitoring the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are ready to do everything to support New York’s workers and residents hit by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Chair of Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Sen. Pete Harckham, affirmed that the treatment programs for substance abuse throughout NY, which had workforce issues even before the pandemic hit, may require comprehensive aid. This national funding will provide that to workers. He congratulated Hochul’s governance for recognizing these crucial employees and acquiring the much-needed funds to maintain them in such an important profession and appealing for others to join. 

Funds acquired through this grand can be utilized in the following ways: 

Recruitment and Retention 

The funds can be used for Retention and Recruitment purposes for any clinical SUD (substance use disorder), administrative, support staff, and direct care. 

Such incentives include; 

  • Hazard Pay, 
  • Longevity Pay, 
  • Retention and hiring incentives, 
  • Differential Pay, and 
  • Retirement Contributions and various one-time fringe benefit payments. 

Education 

Workers can also obtain funds for an exam, tuition, and application costs to sustain certifying personnel, and also to maintain prevailing Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselors (CASAC’s), Credentialed Prevention Specialists (CPSs), Credentialed Prevention Professionals (CPPs), and Certified Recovery Peer Advocates. 

The funding may also be used as registration fees for the conference, career development for staff in colleges, and various specialized training, like ongoing educational training for credentialed or certified experts and educational loan payments. 

Ongoing Support 

Funding can be used to improve long-term employee commitment plans strategies and staff progress, maintain consultants, purchase training courses, offer stipends, and go to training occasions. 

Focusing on existing trauma-based care, this kind of funding may help support training, ongoing discussion, and procedures to form evidence-centered designs of care. 

Career Development 

Funding can also be used to create and sponsor or improve fellowship activities for experts like doctors of medicine, medical assistants, and nurse practitioners, and programs enhancing career improvement of other accredited or credentialed professionals. 

Beneficiaries can also form an agreement with undergraduate nursing, medical assistant, or medical institutions to form Addiction Fellowship Programs and fund incoming students for degrees in addiction, mental health courses, or social work. 

Providers can also use this funding to promote interdisciplinary training towards the achievement of addiction programs and to team up with educational and policy groups to create policies for training workers. 

Procurement and Funding Opportunities 

OASAS offers funding to non-profit organizations, regional government units, and various businesses to support an extensive system of addiction services for every New Yorker. The affordable procurement process allows OASAS to fight addiction at the regional level by assisting new programs and expounding current services for substance disorder consumption and excessive gambling. 

OASAS purchases for specific goods and services, among them, being: 

  • Telecommunication services and equipment 
  • Office supplies, services, and equipment 
  • Substance Use Disorder programs and services 
  • OASAS Addiction Treatment Center supplies and equipment 
  • Information technology services, systems, and equipment 
Substance use recovery group therapy session. 
Additional funding in the state of New York marks another victory in the war against the opioid epidemic.

Expanded Programming 

Most OASAS supporters provide additional services that rely on addiction prevention, treatment, and rescue programs. Community-based services handle issues of particular regions and counties and provide extra support to entities, families, and societies experiencing addiction. 

What’s more: 

  • Clubhouses provide drug-free regions for leisure activities and skill development. 
  • Prevention Resource Centers work with learning institutions and community programs throughout the state to implements and reinforce evidence-centered prevention policies. 
  • Peer Engagement Professionals and Family Planners assist different entities and families in fathoming addiction and access treatment and insurance plans. 
  • Housing Providers assist the homeless or families renowned for substance abuse to acquire ideal housing and jobs, supporting recovery. 
  • Recovery Centers provide non-treatable recovery programs in terms of informational, emotional, instrumental support, and positive interactions. 
  • Addiction Resource Centers and Problem Gambling Resource Centers (PGRCs) are community joints that link New York residents to convenient services. In conjunction with regional prevention programs, Regional Addiction Resource Centers improve community learning and promote awareness regarding addiction. Problem Gambling Resource Centers offer training and knowledge to the public and link the people of New York to prevention and treatment services. 

In the last few years, the State of New York has established an aggressive, multi-functional approach to address the opioid pandemic and form a multi-national continuum of abuse care with complete prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. To defeat this crisis, the government has worked to diversify the availability of traditional services, including epidemic disaster programs, outpatient, inpatient, communal treatment programs, including medication-assisted treatment, and itinerant treatment and transportation services. 

TenEleven and Substance Use Recovery 

TenEleven’s electronic Clinical Record (eCR) is designed to help substance use recovery agencies manage their end-to-end business from intakes to outcomes.  

Our commitment to our customers is to provide the guidance and technology support necessary to thrive in a performance-based payment system. Thousands of users in hundreds of offices use electronic Clinical Record (eCR™) to manage a variety of behavioral health service types from inpatient, to outpatient, to home and community-based services, and more. Schedule a demo of TenEleven’s eCR today to learn more or see our functionalities in action.  

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