Unions Beg State To Hire More Workers For Addiction Treatment

Union members and two state senators are decrying the temporary reduction in admissions to two state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services treatment units designed to help Connecticut’s poorest residents overcome drug addiction.

The DMHAS Addiction Services Division detoxification and intensive treatment facilities at Blue Hills Treatment Center in Hartford and Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown unexpectedly stopped accepting admissions on Dec. 28 leaving hundreds of people who called for help after that date scrambling to find other services, according to members of the New England Health Care Employees Union, SEIU 1199.

“The challenge of CVH closing its admissions office is that they didn’t even have the staff to refer those calls,” said Brian Williams, a Certified Addiction Counselor at CVH who is now on leave and working with the union for a few months.

Williams was one of several union members and advocates who attended a virtual press conference Tuesday calling on Gov. Ned Lamont and DHMAS to hire 330 more employees by April including 62 at Blue Hills and CVH to get the detox and intensive treatment units running again and provide more mental health services at other agency facilities.

Read more: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/01/26/unions-beg-state-to-hire-more-workers-for-addiction-treatment/