Substance Abuse and Public Assistance

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on April 20, 2015 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News | Comments are off for this article

Public officials and lawmakers in some states are calling attention to the amount of people who are on welfare programs like Medicaid and have substance abuse issues. They say that people are unable to get off of welfare due to drug problems, transportation problems and the lack of a high school diploma. In an effort to address the growing welfare problem and provide services to people that allow them to provide for themselves, it was necessary to take a look at the difficulties that welfare recipients faced that kept them near the poverty level.

“There are a lot of things that have happened in these people’s lives to get them to the situation where they’re so heavily dependent on public assistance programs, and it’s not going to be overnight that they’re suddenly going to get off,” explained Joel Potts, head of one state’s Job and Family Services Directors Association.

There also appears to be a disconnection between employers and potential applicants. A recent survey revealed that many people on welfare claim that there are not enough jobs, while many employers responded that there are not enough applicants who appear committed to working or who can pass the required drug test.

As more and more states take a look at their budgets and realize that more effective programs need to replace those that are not producing, getting people off welfare and more viable on their own becomes more important. Research shows that the best way to achieve this goal is by providing more one on one counseling, at-home visits and more individually-based treatment. This is much different from the current standard of practice, and also requires more time and resources to achieve it.

In order to properly help those that are suffering from an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol with the eventual goal of getting those on welfare into more stable, higher paying jobs, more attention needs to be paid to treatment and counseling programs. If these effective services aren’t implemented to help reverse the trend, many people will either wind up losing the benefits they need or the money will be pulled from other programs. The goal should always to help people become healthy and productive as soon as possible.