OLEAN, N.Y. — If the Council on Addiction/Recovery Services in Olean collaborates with Southern Tier Base CASA Trinity, the results expected will be expanded provisions that include mental health services.
That was the word from Mike Prutsman, executive director of CAReS, which currently provides addiction and substance abuse disorder services to individuals throughout the Southern Tier area.
The agency, which is headquartered in Olean, has outpatient services that provide suboxone for treatment of opioid drugs as well as a residential center for men and women in Westons Mills.
Prutsman said CASA is a community-based treatment provider that operates treatment centers across five counties in the Southern Tier. He said the proposed partnership is needed because the “pandemic assisted in changing the fiscal landscape in New York state.
“It’s becoming more challenging for small nonprofits to do everything they need to do,” he explained. “It probably has more to do with us being in healthcare than as a nonprofit. In healthcare you have to do a lot more data reporting, and that’s going to become more and more that way with insurance companies.”
He said the mental health services would help the combined agencies to provide integrated services, as required by a federal grant received by CASA.
In other updates on CAReS, Prutsman said the agency didn’t see a reduction in need for services (during the pandemic), if anything it increased.
“Fortunately, our prevention program is able to get back into schools and do community-based work,” he stated, noting the agency continues to offer telehealth services for those who are unable to travel to the headquarters in Olean.
“Probably the most significant thing is that we have expanded our groups and are doing a lot more groups,” he said of group sessions. The therapy is offered in Olean and Salamanca at present and the agency anticipates the programs will be reopened in Franklinville between September and October.
“We certainly remain stable and fiscally I think we’re even stronger than we were a year ago,” he added. “The other thing people need to know is there is no reduction in staff at CAReS” and the agency expects to continue its expansion of employees.
“But it is challenging to find people to work,” he remarked. “We have three counselor positions open right now in our clinic … for CAReS, the greatest challenge during the pandemic is finding staff … it’s equating to a massive challenge. You have to ask staff, who are working for you now, to do more than they are already doing.”
