Posted: | June 4, 2024 09:35 AM |
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From: | Senator Christine M. Tartaglione |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Additional Staffing Flexibilities for Pennsylvania's Addiction Treatment Workforce |
I will soon introduce legislation that will provide additional staffing flexibilities to Pennsylvania’s drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs. In 2023, our Commonwealth took an important step in bolstering our thinly stretched addiction treatment workforce by enacting Act 66 with near unanimous support in both chambers. Authored by Senator Brooks and me, Act 66 modified several of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Program’s (DDAP) staffing regulations to relax client/staff ratios and qualification requirements for people seeking to work in the field. As was our intention, these regulatory flexibilities are allowing our licensed addiction treatment programs to maintain levels of treatment and expand their workforce in the midst of the ongoing opioid epidemic. However, there is still more we can do to build on Act 66 and support Pennsylvania’s ability to address the opiate crisis. In turn, my legislation creates additional flexibilities within DDAP’s staffing regulations, only applicable during an opioid epidemic, that:
There is no shortage of dedicated people willing to be trained to help others overcome addiction and as legislators, we should cultivate pathways for them to both join and advance within the addiction treatment field. Please join me in supporting this important legislation. |
Introduced as SB1243