NY Phoenix House CEO Testifies at Assembly Hearing on Substance Use Disorder Services During Pandemic & Beyond

NEW YORK, NY (11/17/2021) (readMedia)-- Ann Marie Foster, CEO and President of Phoenix House of New York and Long Island, testified at a New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Hearing today about the availability of services for individuals with substance use disorders, and the capability of treatment providers to meet the needs of their clients after state funding was slashed at the height of the pandemic.

In her testimony, Foster shared that, "At the height of the pandemic in 2020, our funding was reduced and resources such as PPE were not readily available to NFP agencies. When hospitals needed to increase capacity to care for Covid patients, the first beds to go were for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. And now, even though demand for addiction and mental health treatment has never been greater, the beds and funding have not returned. Meanwhile, the cost of delivering care has gone up. The funding that is available to addiction treatment centers simply does not support the true cost of delivering care - this has been a fight for the past 10 years - it never had. We are facing an addiction crisis worse than we have ever seen, and while we are doing our best to meet this crisis, the access and quality of care we are able to provide is limited."

Foster also outlined the many ways that an increase in funding could support organizations working to address mental health and addiction needs: supporting and expanding the workforce, supporting and expanding peer recovery services, and increasing harm reduction tools. And she warned, "The distribution of opioid settlement funds and opportunities for federal funding offer a bright spot for treatment providers, but they may still not be enough to fill the gaps left by state funding cuts and the emerging needs of the recovery community."

See attached and below for Foster's testimony.

Watch the hearing: https://nyassembly.gov/av/hearings/

About Phoenix House

Since 1967, Phoenix House New York has helped thousands of people overcome substance and alcohol use in order to lead healthy, productive, and rewarding lives. Phoenix House New York offers short-term and long-term residential, intensive outpatient, and general outpatient treatment. Phoenix House also offers treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders, medical, psychiatric, and dental services, and impaired driver programs. These services are designed to meet the individual needs of adults at various stages of recovery, including military personnel, and veterans. In addition, Phoenix House provides educational and supportive services to family members, friends, significant others, and the community.

Testimony

Good morning, Thank you to the Assembly Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for the opportunity to speak with you today. I am Ann Marie Foster, president and CEO of Phoenix Houses of New York and Long Island, one of the largest providers of residential, outpatient, mental health and recovery services in the state. We have locations from Brooklyn, NY to the east end of Long Island and we employ approximately 240 staff.

The opioid and drug epidemic was at a crisis point even before the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated its most devastating effects. Those of us in the field often said we were facing a pandemic within an epidemic and so workforce challenges, insufficient funding and lack of resources was and continues to be our norm. As the devastating data of 93,000 lives lost across this country and with the highest numbers reportedly in NYS, in areas like the Bronx, Brooklyn, Suffolk and mid- Hudson and western NY, treatment providers are being asked to do the impossible.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, our funding was reduced and resources such as PPE were not readily available to NFP agencies. When hospitals needed to increase capacity to care for Covid patients, the first beds to go were for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. And now, even though demand for addiction and mental health treatment has never been greater, the beds and funding have not returned. Meanwhile, the cost of delivering care has gone up. The funding that is available to addiction treatment centers simply does not support the true cost of delivering care - this has been a fight for the past 10 years - it never had. We are facing an addiction crisis worse than we have ever seen, and while we are doing our best to meet this crisis, the access and quality of care we are able to provide is limited.

In the last year and a half, our clients have exhibited an increase in both the presentation and exhibition of substance use disorder, mental illness, and co-occurring disorders such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, cardiovascular complications, and more. We see the increased levels of anxiety, depression, grief and loss - none of us have been spared the effects of this pandemic, not the patients we serve, the staff or leadership.

We have struggled to increase staff to address these concerns, but are unable to compete with larger health systems, digital platforms and jobs that offer remote working. We should be able to provide comprehensive services as a one-stop-shop, to meet the needs of the population we serve but we do not have the funding to provide these necessary services.

Health and wellness are a crucial part of recovery, yet the $6.75 a day we receive to feed each client is not nearly enough to accommodate a plant-based lifestyle or even meet the dietary requirements of a kosher or halal diet. We are wrongfully being asked to compartmentalize the needs of our clients.

We have a unique opportunity to learn from the past twenty months and ensure that NFP, community-based organizations, the backbone of the continuum of healthcare is not left behind. There must be once and for all a commitment to strengthening the agencies that work tirelessly to address our community's mental health and addiction needs.

How can we go about doing this?

We need more funding to support our workforce. Many members of our staff have been fighting the opioid and drug epidemic on the frontlines for years, and they need more support. I've worked in healthcare for 30 years, and I've seen firsthand how a well-supported workforce leads to better, more effective, quality care. Our workforce is abandoning ship due to increased workload, their own exposures to the pandemic and overall reevaluating whether they want to continue to do this work - burnout & fatigue. Currently, our staff is stretched too thin, and while competitive salaries are necessary, we need to be creative in growing the workforce offering incentives, retention bonuses, scholarships and loan deferments.

This isn't just being able to hire more treatment providers at our centers, but by growing the workforce we will be able to integrate professionally trained addiction and mental health providers in early intervention at hospitals, in children's services, in the criminal justice system, nursing homes and more.

We need funding to support our peer recovery services. In addition to medication-assisted treatment, peer recovery is one of our most effective tools in fighting substance use disorder. Sobriety is best maintained in group settings, but being in group settings has become harder than it used to be. Funding can help us innovate so that peer recovery programs become more flexible, accessible, appealing, and effective. The investment in technology and the infrastructure cannot be emphasized enough to support the works that peers can do in our communities.

As treatment providers, we need to be better equipped to respond to the growing trends in the addiction treatment field. We are seeing a drastic rise in overdoses and drug use, but no match in funding for life-saving harm reduction tools such as Narcan and fentanyl test strips. And we need leadership to provide guidance and support that helps us account for social determinants of health and treat our clients as whole people, rather than compartmentalizing their separate recovery, mental health, and physical health needs.

The distribution of opioid settlement funds and opportunities for federal funding offer a bright spot for treatment providers, but they may still not be enough to fill the gaps left by state funding cuts and the emerging needs of the recovery community. Substance use treatment providers need more support and I welcome the opportunity to continue this work with you. Thank you.