PODCAST:
May 26. 2026 ~ Nate Miller breaks down his reporting on the shortage of addiction counselors in Michigan, the impact on communities, and what’s driving the growing gap in care.
MICH. ~ Michigan addiction rates are on the rise, and treatment counselors are having trouble keeping up. In the United States, the Great Lakes State ranks 38th in addiction treatment staffing, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“If you look at the pandemic, you’ll see obviously there was a great strain that was placed on the healthcare industry, and because of that, a lot of people who worked in addiction treatment retired early or they left the field entirely according to national experts,” Bridge Michigan reporter Nate Miller said on All Talk. “During this time, people are spending more time at home. So you see a lot of usage and drug usage problems sort of get exacerbated as well.”
Michigan also is tied for the least amount of vocational behavioral health programs, which shrinks the pipeline for potential counselors.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is combatting this issue by investing in loan repayment programs, but the small scale combined with the recency of this initiative has made it difficult for people to join.
