Budget plan to add $4.5 million for infants, mothers with opioid addiction

The governor’s proposed spending plan includes $33 million to combat the opioid epidemic that is ravaging communities and that has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 Pennsylvanians last year.

About $26.5 million of that money is available federal funding that would go to programs that expand access to “medication assisted treatment,” which combines drugs like methadone with counseling and behavioral therapies. 

However the governor’s proposal also includes a new line item: $4.5 million to help mothers who struggle with addiction, as well as their infant children.

Secretary of Policy and Planning Sarah Galbally says some of those children were born already addicted to opioids.

She says the funding — to be disbursed as grants — allows nurses to visit families at home, an approach proven to improve a child’s outcome. 

“It really is a one-one-one experience. It’s tailored to the parent. It’s tailored to the child. They’re talking about educational opportunities. They’re talking about developmental milestones and where that infant is and how that parent can create a supportive environment that that child is going to flourish in.”

Republican state Representative Stan Saylor, who chairs the House Appropriations committee, says he supports spending money to fight the epidemic but wants to make sure it’s having an impact.

“We need to know that the people who are going to spend those dollars are getting results from the way they spend it, or we need to bring somebody else in who can recommend how those dollars need to be spent to have a real effect on famillies.”

Saylor says he’s holding a meeting with state Attorney General Josh Shapiro and others to look at different ways funding might help, as well as ways to track programs’ success.

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