BOSTON – Potential worker shortages are putting critical treatment services out of reach for Bay Staters struggling with substance use disorder, especially those who rely on safety net benefits, a new report warns .
Although overdoses in Massachusetts continue to kill more than 2,000 people each year, nearly a quarter of jobs in the substance use disorder treatment system are unfilled and the average wait for admission to some long-term residential recovery programs is more than a month, according to the Association. for behavioral health said.
The industry group surveyed dozens of its members, who reported a shortage of doctors, counselors, nurses and other staff who play an important role in responding to the state’s opioid epidemic .
“Historically low rates and difficulty filling jobs serving complex populations have resulted in high vacancy rates, frequent turnover, long waiting lists, and the permanent closure of certain programs,” the authors wrote in the 14 page report.
Overall, respondents reported a 24 percent vacancy rate for positions across the spectrum of substance use disorder treatment services, ABH said.
Certain subsets of the industry face even harsher conditions. ABH said 46 percent of staff left acute care service settings in the 12 months prior to its survey, while four out of five nurses in opioid treatment programs left in the past year, “a critical labor shortage affecting OTP operations and the ability to dispense methadone.”
Fifty-three of the 55 respondents said they have one or more vacant customer-facing positions, and 44 percent of the time, it took more than six months to fill an open job, ABH wrote.
The trend continues in the wrong direction for some sectors as well. The report said that for every 10 doctors or masters advisers who left their jobs, only 9.2 were hired, widening the gap.
Warning of a “hidden safety net access crisis” for 24/7 treatment services, ABH said the number of beds available for patients on public benefits has decreased, while the number available to those using private insurance or paying out of pocket has increased.
The group counted nearly 190 “safety net” acute treatment and crisis stabilization service beds that were disconnected between February and May alone, and said more than 260 clients were on waiting lists for in long-term residential recovery spaces at the time of your survey.
“Respondents with waitlists reported the average wait for admission was 34 days. One quarter reports clients waiting 60 days or longer, with some waiting as long as 135 days,” the group wrote.
ABH released the report on Tuesday, but the data it cited came from a member survey conducted in April 2022. However, the authors said the responses were “supplemented and updated with publicly available data by provide additional context to the issues facing the substance use disorder treatment continuum of care.”
Labor shortages continue to affect most of the healthcare sector, including hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Lawmakers and former Gov. Charlie Baker agreed last year to a mental health access reform law that required commercial insurers to cover emergency services, gave regulators more tools to enforce payment parity for mental health care and eliminated a prior authorization requirement for treatment of mental illness. .
The law was also intended to mitigate an emergency department “boarding” crisis, when patients who need specialized mental health beds wait days or weeks to be placed, by speeding up review of younger patients in those situations and creating an advisory board.
ABH urged lawmakers to take additional steps this session to ensure that state and federal parity requirements are enforced more frequently.
The group also wants policymakers to focus on improving payment and reimbursement rates in the industry, saying many workers are leaving because of lackluster compensation and eliminating co-payments and other shared costs for disorder interventions for substance use.
“As Massachusetts continues to see unacceptably high rates of fatal overdose, we must do more to support and expand the workforce of behavioral health care providers who can make a difference in the lives of people with substance use disorder of substances,” said ABH President and CEO Lydia Conley. in a statement alongside the report. “We also have more work to do to hold both public and private insurance payers accountable to ensure that parity in behavioral health treatment becomes a reality.”
