Editorial: Combat shortage of addiction counselors, raise pay

The number of people who need healing is increasing, but the number of healers is not.

Pennsylvania Certification Board spokesperson Terri Wray told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that the number of certified addiction counselors in Pennsylvania has remained consistent despite the epidemic levels of heroin deaths in Allegheny County. In the past five years, the number has stood at about 2,300 addiction counselors, while the number of Pennsylvanians who reported being dependent on or abusing illicit drugs has reached 314,000, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

Being an addiction counselor is emotionally taxing, but unlike other high-stress jobs, it isn’t financially lucrative. It’s more respected and better paid to research drug addiction than it is to be the person who makes a career out of counseling those with it. And we need to confront that.

Here at Pitt, we are in an environment that heavily emphasizes STEM fields and research. Pitt has made strides in researching and developing websites to assist in the battle against the drug epidemic, such as Pitt’s partnership with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency two weeks ago.

But research alone can’t treat addiction.

We need to begin incentivizing students to pursue fields like social work by emphasizing the importance of counselors and those who play critical roles in the rehabilitation process. Until then, we can’t expect to combat the shortage. .

Many of the people who choose to pursue social work don’t necessarily do it for the salary. In 2016, addiction counselors make on average $46,000 a year and drug and alcohol counselors make $38,000. Compare that to someone who studied business, whose starting salary is $49,000. With a salary lower than the national averages, people don’t have the monetary incentive to pursue addiction counseling. In order to encourage people to pursue this field, we need to create that monetary incentive.

One way the state government could incentivize people to pursue addiction counseling is through tax credits, which is already common in a struggling profession, such as teaching.All teachers are entitled to tax deductions for teaching-related expenses, and many teachers are eligible to claim deductions for tuition and fees for any accredited post-secondary institution.

By paying state-hired addiction counselors a larger salary, we’re helping to stop workers from burning out in a critical field. And the more people who have successful recoveries, the less money the taxpayer pays toward federal costs associated with addiction, such as prison stays for those who are caught possessing drugs.

Many of the students who go into rehabilitation services — such as addiction counseling — are doing it out of purely altruistic reasons. Many may have experienced addiction first-hand, whether that be their own addictions or their parents’ or friends’. That’s already a small population of people.

While the salary may often act as a deterrent, being an addiction counselor also takes an emotional toll.

Addiction counselors have to experience the heartache that often comes along with working with addicts who come with painful stories and experiences in dire need of help. Addiction counselors must also grapple with the possibility that their help may not be an immediate success or a success at all.  According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 40 to 60 percent of addicts relapse.

We need to create an incentive that goes beyond self-fulfillment, as noble as that may be. There needs to be a sense of respect to draw potential addiction counselors in and a salary to match that respect and promise some standard of a quality of life.

If we want to combat our community’s drug epidemic, we need to start with supporting the counselors who battle it on the frontlines.