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SAMHSA Radio News Line

Addiction-Treatment Workforce Is Getting Older

Posted: August 27th, 2006, 5:00pm PDT

Enclosure: [download]

(BEARD OPEN):
According to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration--SAMHSA--if current drug-use-initiation rates continue, demand for addiction treatment will double by 2020. Will the addiction-treatment workforce be able to meet such a demand? Cynthia Moreno Tuohy ["too-ee"],executive director of the Association for Addiction Professionals, NAADAC ["nay-dack"], says there is reason to be concerned; she says the current addiction-treatment workforce is getting older and younger workers are not coming in to replace them.

(TUOHY):
"We're getting older. You know, some of us have been in this profession going on 30 years. And so, we're seeing a graying of our own professionals, without that young population coming up, to take our place. So, the question becomes, 'Who's going to take our place, and are they trained and qualified, and are there programs to train and qualify them, in order to do so?'"

(BEARD CLOSE):
NAADAC's "Practitioners Services Network" surveys find that more than half of all current treatment providers are between the ages of 40 and 55. Experts say, if communities and academic institutions worked together to encourage students to look at substance abuse counseling as a career choice, a next generation of treatment providers could be raised up. For more information on the addiction-treatment workforce, visit www.samhsa.gov. For the SAMHSA Newsline, I'm Bill Beard.

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