FAVOR Advocacy Information

Support Increased FY 2008 Funding for SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the Recovery Community Services (RCSP) Program

(Favor receives funding from Robert Wood Johnson $190,000.00, CSAT $75,000.00 and NIDA $60,000.00)

March 28, 2007


BACKGROUND

For many people, federal and state-funded treatment and recovery services are the only way that they can get help for alcohol and other drug problems and get on the path to long-term recovery. Over 21 million Americans aged 12 or over still need help and aren’t getting it. Almost half of the people who tried to get help were denied treatment because of cost or insurance barriers. The shortage of addiction treatment and peer and other recovery support services results in waiting lists in many places, sometimes as long as six months.

The President’s request of $352.1 million for CSAT in FY 2008 is a decrease of $46.8 million from FY 2007. It includes a $3.9 million cut in the Recovery Community Services Program (RCSP) and the virtual elimination of funding for the National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

RCSP Funding

FY 2006 Actual: $8,8 million
FY 2007 Actual: $9.1 million
FY 2008 President’s Proposed: $5.3 million
Decrease: $ -3.9 million

ABOUT THE RECOVERY COMMUNITY SERVICES PROGRAM (RCSP)

RCSP is a key innovative federal program that is helping individuals in their communities get help for addiction to alcohol and other drugs and once they are clean and sober, sustain their recovery and get their lives back on track. The RCSP has supported nearly 50 projects since it began in 1998. Initially the grants were intended to organize the recovery community to provide public education and policy change. In 2002, RCSP changed focus and began supporting organizations that provide services and enable peers in stable recovery to help others avoid relapse and move into long-term recovery.

Across the country, 24 current grantees (six more will be funded in 2007) are providing peer-to-peer recovery support services, pioneering ways that communities can support people in recovery and their families. Many of the grant projects rely on the willingness of individuals in recovery and their family members to voluntarily “give back” to those who are seeking recovery.

The grants’ average awards have been $350,000 per year for each grantee for four years. SAMHSA/CSAT received more than 140 applications for the last grant cycle in FY 2006, seven of which were funded. The agency made no awards in 2005.

Recovery community and faith-based organizations have developed and are demonstrating ways to prevent relapse, promote long-term recovery, and improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of individuals and their families. These community-based organizations have assessed their community’s specific local strengths and needs, developed programs that have been demonstrated to address them, drawing on the abilities of people in long-term recovery who serve as peers.

RCSP promotes a recovery-oriented system of care by bridging the gap between short-term episodes of treatment and long-term recovery that is grounded in community support. Peer services are non-clinical and enhance clinically-driven treatment outcomes through holistic, community-based services. Peer services act as a safety net for individuals who suffer relapse and offer a streamlined reentry to treatment, if necessary. Peer recovery services are completely distinct and separate from 12-step groups and other mutual aid supports. However, the RCSP emphasizes helping individuals create a network of varied recovery supports that can include mutual aid and 12-step supports.

Peer Recovery Support Services include peer coaching and mentoring and a variety of educational and skill-training services, including help in securing housing, education and employment; building constructive family and other personal relationships; managing stress; participating in alcohol-and other drug-free social and recreational activities; and obtaining services from multiple systems such as the primary and mental health care, child welfare, and criminal justice systems. Many of these services are delivered at the growing number of recovery community centers around the country.

The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report, Crossing the Quality Chasm: Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions (November 2005) highlighted the long history of peer support/mutual support group/recovery consumers as providers of alcohol and other drug treatment services, pointing to the effective programs being carried out by SAMHSA’s RCSP program.

ABOUT RECOVERY MONTH

For the last seventeen years, September National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month (Recovery Month) observances are held across the country. Public and private sector organizations sponsor a wide variety of events and activities that promote awareness of the reality of long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

665 Recovery Month events were held in 338 cities in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in 2006, reaching almost 4 million people.
Road to Recovery Webcasts, in a talk and magazine show format, attracted almost 8,000 views, with more than 318 distinct public education government cable channels in 295 cable systems throughout the country airing the series, reaching more than 15.5 million cable households, representing an estimated earned media value of $4 million.
The Recovery Month web site received more than 15.8 million hits (15,827,985 an indicator of Web server traffic) and the site logged in 981,717 “unique visitors” (an indicator of new visitors).
In total, the overall estimated earned media value for all radio PSAs released from 2002 through 2006 is $9,818,355 with a collective listenership of 1,003,580,689.
2006 Recovery Month events reached almost 4 million people and the television and radio public service announcements reached more than 178 million viewers and 233 million listeners, respectively