Workforce Development

The addiction-treatment workforce needs urgent expansion to meet projected demand, with persistent recruitment and retention challenges. The session covers clinician recruitment and retention strategies, peer workforce growth and integration, telehealth-enabled care delivery expanding access in rural and underserved regions, workforce equity including underrepresented minorities in addiction-medicine training, pipeline programmes from undergraduate to clinical practice, and burnout-prevention strategies. Discussion addresses loan-repayment programmes (NHSC and STAR LRP), the addiction-medicine vs addiction-psychiatry workforce data, advanced-practice nursing scope of practice, the international addiction-medicine workforce shortage, and emerging models for community-based addiction-counsellor training.