Wolf visits Washington to discuss opiate crisis
Gov. Tom Wolf talks with SPHS CARE Center executive director Kellie McKevitt, right, as he takes a tour of the facility in Washington Friday.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Gov. Tom Wolf talks to Phyllis Sager, a registered nurse at SPHS CARE Center, as he takes a tour of the facility in Washington in 2016.
Gov. Tom Wolf visited the city of Washington Friday to discuss how passage of the state budget will help combat opiate addiction.
“We learned we cannot arrest our way to a cure,” Wolf said in the Washington office of Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services CARE Center, which recently was named one of 20 opioid use disorder Centers of Excellence by the state.
Wolf sought $34 million to fight opioid addiction, but $15 million was approved in the 2016 budget, along with $5 million in federal funding. The first phase of his plan is the designation of treatment centers that will identify them as locations for patients to receive holistic care.
CARE Center Executive Director Kellie McKevitt said funding, of an amount yet to be determined, will help the center obtain more treatment space and hire staff.
Wolf’s office estimates the 20 Centers of Excellence will treat 4,500 people currently unable to get treatment.
“It’s a disease that is indiscriminate, and it’s getting worse,” Wolf said. “We’ve got to get our arms around it.”
The plan is to have funding and resources for Medicaid-supported care centers in place by Oct. 1.
The CARE Center, at 75 E. Maiden St., is the only drug-focused SPHS treatment center in the region and treats patient from Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
McKevitt said the center’s use of the holistic recovery model – treating not only addiction, but mental and physical health – falls in line with the Center for Excellence approach.
“Mental health and substance abuse go hand in hand,” she said. “We’ve known that these things are the best way to go.”
Ted Dallas, secretary of the state Department of Human Services, said funding the centers will help people receive appropriate care.
“If we’re going to be successful, (the focus) has to be the whole person,” Dallas said.