It’s National Addiction Treatment Week

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It’s National Addiction Treatment Week

The second annual National Addiction Treatment Week, held by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (AMA), is taking place this year from April 23–29. The week-long event was created to raise awareness that addiction is a disease, evidence-based treatments are available, and more clinicians need to enter the field of addiction medicine in order to treat the nationwide epidemic.

“Raising awareness that addiction is a chronic brain disease, and not a moral failure, and qualifying more clinicians to treat addiction is vital to increasing patients’ access to treatment,” Kelly Clark, MD, MBA, DFASAM, president of ASAM, said in a press release. “National Addiction Treatment Week supports ASAM’s dedication to increasing access and improving the quality of addiction treatment, and helping physicians treat addiction and save lives.”

AMA, along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), among others, will host social engagements, online interactive campaigns, and live webinars, including one on how to become board certified in addiction medicine under the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

What’s more, in honor of this week, ASAM has culled together some important facts and figures about addiction and addiction treatment in the U.S. Take a look:

  • An estimated 20.5 million Americans suffer from the disease of addiction.
  • Only about 10% of those diagnosed with addiction received the treatment they need.
  • One study found that when looking to just get assessed for treatment, less than 1/3 of participants got an appointment within 24 hours, 40% of patients waited for treatment between 3-7 days, and 12% waited more than a week.
  • In 2015, nearly 2.3 million Americans suffered from opioid addiction, yet there was only enough treatment capacity to treat 1.4 million people, leaving a treatment gap of nearly 1 million people.
  • Just 2% of all providers are trained to provide medication-assisted treatment.
  • More than 30 million people live in counties that do not have a single provider of medication-assisted treatment.

Treating Opiate Addiction
Seabrook is proud to be on the front line combating the nationwide opioid epidemic and helping our clients to achieve a lasting sobriety. To learn more about our programs and services, including opiate detoxification, call us today: 856-455-7575.