A key challenge for many states in enhancing the quantity and quality of treatment services is recruiting, training, and retaining qualified treatment professionals. Effective addiction counseling is a skill that must be learned and developed. Salaries for counselors average about $30,000 per year, which is low for such skilled and emotionally challenging work. Every state has a counselor-credentialing process, and most processes feature an entry-level credential for individuals interested in joining the field of addiction treatment, but there are no minimum educational standards. Some states have additional measures in place to boost the quality of treatment staff, but there is a shortage of trained counselors, and that shortage is likely to grow over the next several years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 61,000 individuals were employed as substance abuse and behavioral disorders counselors in 2000; by 2010, the Labor Department projects there will be a need for an additional 21,000 counselors, a 35 percent increase. ^[1]   A similar increase in demand is anticipated for licensed professionals who have received graduate-level educations. ^[2]  

Other disciplines within the public health care system are responding to similar anticipated staffing shortages by developing strategies to promote the recruitment and retention of qualified employees. Such strategies exist for positions such as personal and home care aides, medical assistants, physician assistants, home health aides, and physical therapy assistants. These models should be reviewed for programs, initiatives, and funding mechanisms that can translate to the substance abuse field. A new National Workforce Development Office within the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment should focus on these issues, as recommended at a major national treatment conference in 2000. ^[3]  

The proposed workforce development office would be in an ideal position to link with other federal agencies involved in addiction treatment, from the Bureau of Prisons to the Veterans Administration, to develop further resources for the cross-disciplinary training and compensation of counselors. The recruitment and retention of qualified substance abuse treatment professionals in agencies that operate treatment services parallel to state AOD agencies, including criminal justice, mental health, public health, social services and child welfare agencies, is central to closing the three treatment gaps discussed above. Only a universally competent workforce can ensure that evidence-based treatment is effectively implemented in these various treatment settings, thereby maximizing the effectiveness and value derived from each treatment and supportive services dollar.