Begin Main Content Area

​Substance Abuse Services

There are a wide variety of substance and alcohol abuse services available to children and adults in Pennsylvania. Community substance abuse programs are administered through county program offices called single county authorities (SCAs). The county SCA determines a person's eligibility for service funding, assesses the need for treatment or other services, and makes referrals to appropriate programs to match treatment and/or service needs.


Centers of Excellence

In 2016, Governor Tom Wolf introduced the Centers of Excellence (COE) for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) as one solution to the growing overdose crisis within the state. Forty-five were selected as centers including primary care practices, hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers, substance-use disorder (SUD) treatment providers, and SCAs. The COEs were designed to engage the community to identify all persons with OUD and make sure every person with OUD achieves optimal health. This means COEs take care of the whole person, including OUD treatment, physical health treatment, and mental health treatment such as anxiety or depression treatment. It also means that COEs provides hand-in-hand support to every person with OUD, including providing every person with OUD a peer who helps the person process all steps in the recovery process and providing every person with a community-based care management team who helps the person identify, organize, obtain, and sustain treatment/non-treatment resources. 


Payment for Drug and Alcohol Services

The cost of these services will vary depending upon the type of service. Pennsylvania's Medical Assistance program, either through a managed care organization or the traditional fee-for-service system, pays for many of these services for eligible individuals. People who use services, but are not on Medical Assistance and are without access to other insurance, will be assessed for their ability to pay for services by the county SCA. If you need further assistance you may be referred to your local county assistance office (CAO), or the local Social Security Administration (SSA) Office.