Positive Policy to Support Recovery from Addiction in Georgia
Support the Georgia Recovery Community / Support Peer Led Recovery
Addiction is the epidemic within the COVID-19 pandemic. Addiction is real with over 1.5 million Georgian’s in active addiction. Recovery is real. There are over 800,000 people in recovery across Georgia. When the General Assembly supports recovery, communities are safer, families stay together, the workforce is stronger, and we save tax-payer dollars.
The Georgia Council on Substance Abuse is Georgia’s exclusive statewide Recovery Community Organization representing the voice of the Georgia Recovery Community as we work to break the stigma surrounding recovery from addiction and towards policies and legislation which save lives while making behavioral health care available to all Georgians.
The Georgia Council on Substance Abuse shares these policies for consideration as we work together to best support the Georgia Recovery Community.
Parity – The Omnibus Health Care Bill
Parity is the single most important policy issue for the Georgia Recovery Community. It is essential that Georgia enforce the 2008 Federal Parity law. Insured Georgians have significantly more difficulty accessing behavioral health treatment – treatment for mental illnesses and substance use disorders – than accessing other medical care.
Recommendation:
- Stand up parity compliance units at the Department of Community Health (DCH) and Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner (DOI).
- Provide funding for DCH and DOI to hire and train staff charged with parity compliance functions (e.g., market conduct examinations, and network adequacy reviews.
- Provide funding for DOI and DCH to implement a marketing campaign to educate Georgians on their parity rights and to implement parity complaint tracking and resolution processes.
Additional Appropriations for Peer Recovery Support Services
Recommendation:
- Expand addiction recovery support center (ARSC) funding
- Funding for additional staff on the CARES Warm Line
- Increased CARES Academy funding
Increase and Expand Funding for Access to Narcan for First Responders in Rural Georgia
Georgia’s rural communities are in a vulnerable position when it comes to funding for the life-saving drug, Narcan. There is a higher overdose rate per capita in rural communities across Georgia than that of urban areas. Often, local rural governments have extremely limited funds for this purpose.
Recommendation:
- Increase funding to local governments to purchase NARCAN for first responders and law enforcement to carry
- Reboot Jackson ARSC be considered to help distribute and train local rural communities on the uses of NARCAN
Expand the Behavioral Healthcare Workforce
Georgia ranks 48th out of the 50 states and D.C. in terms of its citizens access to mental health care.
Recommendation:
- Ensure that state-administered programs like Medicaid and Peach-Care offer market-based reimbursement rates to attract and retain behavioral health care workers
- Grow peer workforce programs – e.g., CPS and CARES and expand payer reimbursement for certified peer support services
- Increase access to culturally and linguistically appropriate care
Emergency and Crisis Response
Law enforcement are often the first responders to behavioral health crises. When law enforcement responds, people in crisis too often end up in jails.
Recommendation:
- Implement co-responder models of law enforcement and mental health/substance use disorder clinicians and peers
- Fully implement the national 988 number and crisis response system by July 2022
- Establish additional behavioral health community service centers, as well as respite care and peer support locations
Early Identification and Prevention
Early intervention for behavioral health challenges is both clinically and cost effective due to lowered treatment intensity, fewer and less severe continuing symptoms, and longer and fuller recovery.
Recommendation:
- Expand APEX and other school-based behavioral health services
- Expand gatekeeper training for school personnel and universal prevention activities – e.g., mental health, suicide prevention, substance misuse
- Increase First Episode Psychosis treatment initiatives (3 in 100 persons affected)
- Utilize SBIRT, which stands for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment, to train teachers to identify substance use and mental health needs as students return to the classroom and properly refer them to appropriate treatment, such as school nurses or community mental health providers. Identifying substance use and mental health issues early, allows students to get the treatment they need before the situation turns into an emergency.
- SBIRT is low-cost, effective, and supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. SBIRT helps trusted adults (like teachers, school nurses, or counselors) to have structured conversations that identify students’ drug or alcohol use and connects them to follow-up counseling or treatment if needed. Georgia policymakers have also demonstrated their support for SBIRT by adopting Senate Resolution 1135 during the 2018 legislative session, which endorses SBIRT as a “best practice to facilitate academic success and positive school climate.” SBIRT can also be combined with other screening tools that may only address depression, anxiety, or other mental health needs so that a student’s full spectrum of needs is addressed.
Telehealth
Everyone in Georgia deserves effective and professional access to broadband
Recommendation:
- Expand use of telecommunications technologies to deliver healthcare, public health services, and health education.
- Establish an open access, fiber-to-the-home network where the same physical network infrastructure is utilized by multiple providers delivering services to subscribers in unserved and underserved areas.
Tax Credits for Recovery
Provide support and incentives for businesses to hire Georgia’s in recovery
Recommendation:
- Tax Credits and other incentives to businesses who hire and provide human resource supports for people in recovery
- Tax Credits and other incentives to businesses provide human resource supports for people in recovery
- Model this strategy on successful film tax credit legislation in Georgia
- Other states
- Study Committee
Beyond the Box
Everyone deserves an opportunity to earn a degree from university
Recommendation:
- Ban the Box on college applications – work to ensure barriers to education and stronger earnings are removed in our colleges and universities across Georgia so people in recovery are not denied an admission slot
- Some college applications ask if someone has been convicted of a crime this discriminatory practice must be removed
- All people should have equal access to educational opportunities in the state of Georgia.
