Nov 22, 2022
NAATP is in a good place, and we didn’t get here all on our own. Such is the case with recovery from addiction, as it is with the success of our association. We all get by with a lot of help from our friends. As we enter a season of thanksgiving, I write to thank our members, donors, and stakeholders for the support that has made us strong and effective. As a professional society of treatment providers, our value is intrinsically connected to our existence as a community with a shared value system. Success is not achieved separately but rather as a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
As The National Association approaches the close of its 43rd year of service, we find ourselves in an enviable position. The association’s membership is at an all-time high and growing, we are fiscally strong, we operate with a dedicated professional staff which continues to expand, and we are guided by a national board of directors who represent the very best of treatment leadership. As a result, we can deliver a comprehensive array of services to our members while promoting systems of care that provide equitable access to high quality service.
Treatment operation is hard work, made even harder by the pandemic. Operations are impacted by an environment which has concurrently increased a population of patients who are sicker than ever before. As I speak to our members, the theme is clear and consistent: our patients have greater acuity, our workforce is depleted and exhausted, and reimbursement remains inadequate. The Big Three: Acuity, Workforce, Reimbursement. At NAATP, these are our priorities within a new strategic plan developed to respond to an ever-changing environment.
In addition to responding to the everyday needs of our members, success of our profession ultimately requires addressing that which is at the core of all of our work: the demonstration of our value. That is why NAATP launched the Foundation for Recovery Science and Education (FoRSE).
FoRSE is now fully operational, collecting and analyzing data, and continuing to grow. It supports treatment providers in using patient outcome data to inform clinical and operational practices and improve quality. To date, 61 Data Sites (treatment facilities) are participating from across the country. Data Sites share de-identified data within three domains: data about the Patients they treat, the Services they provide, and the Outcomes reported by patients. The FoRSE database is unlike any other, now consisting of over 88,000 unique patient episodes and over 270,000 surveys. Participating facilities span 20 states and the full continuum of care. By year-end, FoRSE will deliver the first confidential Data Inventory Report Cards to all Data Sites, providing them with a summary of the completeness and accuracy of their data, as well as recommendations for improving the health of the data repository and for informing meaningful site-specific analytic reports.
For this, FoRSE Executive Director Dr. Peters and I take this opportunity to thank a very special group of donors and providers who “stood up” our Foundation as the Founding Donors. We simply would not be here without you. I encourage all of our stakeholders to take notice of this generosity and learn more about FoRSE at FoRSE Founding Donors and FoRSE Outcomes Program.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Marvin Ventrell
NAATP CEO
