Stakeholders said Monday that funds from the cannabis sales tax and opioid settlements should be used to strengthen the behavioral health workforce and infrastructure.
Jeremy Klemanski, Gateway Foundation CEO, told members of the House’s Mental Health and Addiction and the Senate’s Behavioral and Mental Health committees that “time is literally of the essence” when it comes to addressing substance use disorder.
Demand for treatment continues to grow, but the sector has long been underfunded, from reimbursement rates to workers’ pay.
“It’s time to invest in restoring both our people and our facilities,” Klemanski said. “Wages in the substance use disorder treatment space continue to lag behind health professions, and it’s time for us to work on this. The age-old excuses that everyone is asking for money and there isn’t enough to go around don’t hold up anymore.”
Lawmakers convened the hearing to discuss how to allocate new funds to best support behavioral health services.
We really want to take a deep dive to make sure we’re getting every dollar out there that we can actually get our hands on to fund these important programs, and that these dollars are really helping the people that need the most help,” said Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview.
Illinois is slated to receive around $1.3 billion from opioid settlements by 2038. Of that, about $772.6 million will go to a fundfor substance use disorder programs.
Last fiscal year saw $83 million from cannabis taxes and $127 million from opioid settlements allocated, according to officials from the Department of Human Services.
Donnell Barnett, the behavioral health advisor at the agency’s Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery, said the work on the opioid front includes making the anti-overdose drug Naloxone widely available and improving outreach, referral and coordination support in areas hardest hit by the epidemic.
Funds from cannabis sales support public health campaigns on the effects of using the recreational drug.
John Werning, executive director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, said often the funding they receive for harm reduction merely covers the cost of Naloxone, leaving groups like his to pay for syringes and other supplies as well as for hiring personnel who can provide counseling on the street.
“We are chronically understaffed because of the funding limitations,” Werning said. “So I know it’s kind of reductive to say that we need money, but we really need money.”