Substance abuse is a growing problem in Onondaga County, and Crouse Hospital has the only dedicated treatment center. Crouse Spokesperson Bob Allen told County Lawmakers extra funding is needed to expand the facility.
“The facility that we describe as 410, where the bulk of our programs are housed, we cannot physically take any more patients in that building.”
The facility will cost between 17 to 20 million dollars to build. The Legislature’s Health Committee approved allocating $150,000 dollars today to support the hospital’s chemical dependency treatment services. Monika Taylor says 52% of admissions in 2015 were opioid related. There are many reasons people need help.
“Publicly still about a 25 to 30 percent of all of our admissions present alcohol abuse disorders. we have individuals seeking treatment for crack cocaine or marijuana use disorders. Every patient coming into our treatment facility is carefully assessed for what they need, and then we make recommendations based on that.”
County Legislator Kathy Rapp was surprised to learn about some of the staggering statistics.
“Increase in heroin use in the last ten years and over a 400% increase in pregnant women coming in with heroin addictions, a year’s waiting list to get treated. It is a public health issue that we need to step up to.”
To make sure people recover from opiate addiction, Deputy County Executive Ann Rooney would like to see more doctors who can help.
“Because a lot of them, while they prescribe opioids, they now need to reverse that and start to be more willing to prescribe the drugs that address addiction.”
The full County Legislature still needs to approve the money to support the chemical dependency treatment program at Crouse.
