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SAMHSA Radio News Line

Reinforcing the Addiction-Treatment Workforce

Posted: August 13th, 2006, 5:00pm PDT

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(BEARD OPEN):
Data from the "Substance Abuse Treatment Workforce Environmental Scan," a survey conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration--SAMHSA--show staff retention has become a major issue. The survey indicates a staff turnover of 25-percent, per year, across the substance-abuse-treatment organizations sampled--a rate that is more than double that of all occupations across the nation. Cynthia Moreno Tuohy ["too-ee"]--executive director of the Association for Addiction Professionals--says strong incentives are needed, to help prevent valued substance-abuse-treatment workers from leaving the field.

(TUOHY):
"Retention is an issue. 'Incentivizing' the workforce is very important: 'incentivization' through loan-forgiveness programs, in order for people to get the education and training that they need--as well as incentive programs on the job, so that people remain in this profession, instead of going to other health-care professions that are paying higher wages and have better benefits."

(BEARD CLOSE):
Tuohy says surveys have shown incentives that would be meaningful to workers in the addiction-treatment field include: flexible work schedules; salary increases with advanced training; and clinical supervision. For more information about retaining and reinforcing the addiction-treatment workforce, visit www.samhsa.gov. For the "SAMHSA Newsline", I'm Bill Beard.

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