Major Federal Treatment Grant Program in Devastating Cutbacks

Addiction Treatment Industry Newswire

08/22/2014 -ATIN – A key federal addiction treatment grant program called Access to Recovery that has helped hundreds of thousands of poor Americans gain access to treatment, as well as those leaving the military and criminal justice system has been slashed to bone – frankly to the point that the hugely successful needs based program will basically cease to exist if something isn’t done to reverse Congress’ decision to cut funding for the next grant cycle. To give one an idea of the devastating nature of the cuts, during the previous grant cycle Access to Recovery helped the needy in 30 states, while in the current grant cycle coming up Access to Recovery will help people gain access to addiction treatment in just six states, according to published reports.

Indiana Hard Hit

A good and particularly devastating example of how hard the hits are coming, this at a time when it has been widely recognized that addiction across the nation has reached epidemic proportions with its tentacles moving demographically into every nook and cranny of our society, is in the state of Indiana. Access to Recovery grants previously provided the main access to addiction treatment support in 11 Indiana counties, with just $3.3 million a year doing a great job in helping almost 12,000 people in Indiana gain access to much needed care, according to published reports.

Key Organizations May be Forced to Downsize or Close

There are a whole range of non-profits across the state of Indiana which, according to published reports, are banding together to lobby to reverse to the devastating cutbacks in the Access to Recovery federal grant program. Without major changes to the current federal budget outlook for the program many organizations throughout the state are in danger of either closing completely or facing cutbacks of an absolutely devastating nature. And given the tiny size of the $3.3M for the program in Indiana in relation to the huge almost $4 trillion total federal spending, one has to wonder whether it really is just the rich that have any kind of reliable access to addiction treatment in this country

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