According to “secret shopper” research, it might be nearly impossible for many American families to get their teens who are struggling with addiction into an inpatient treatment facility.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Caroline King of Oregon Health & Science University (OSHU) in Portland, stated, “If you are a family in crisis and you have a kid for whom outpatient treatment is not an option, you hope to be able to call the closest residential facility to you and have access to timely, safe, and affordable care for your child.” Regretfully, according to a university news release, “this study shows that affordable, timely, and effective treatment is severely lacking for the most vulnerable kids in our population.”
King conducted the study as a medical student at OHSU. She’s now an emergency medicine resident at the Yale School of Medicine.
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As an influx of opioids such as fentanyl continues, there’s been a steep rise in overdoses and deaths among young Americans. That makes the need for effective residential treatment programs more urgent than ever. But how available are these programs? To find out, King’s group posed as “secret shoppers”—people purporting to be the aunts and uncles of a 16-year-old who’d recently survived a fentanyl overdose. They reached out to 160 residential treatment centers across the United States, asking about admission availability and costs.
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The results were disheartening: About half of the facilities said there was a waiting list to get in, and the average wait time was almost one month, a long time for a child in crisis. Costs were an issue, too. If a placement was available, almost half of facilities required full or partial payment up front, with costs averaging $878 per day, the study found. The average quoted cost for a one-month stay is $26,000. Residential treatment centers that were run on a for-profit basis were more likely to have space available, but their costs were about triple the amount charged by non-profit facilities, King’s team found.
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Facilities frequently recommend that people obtain a loan, take out a second mortgage on their house, or charge everything to their credit card when informed by the secret shopper that cost might be a problem. When a child is in crisis, all of this forces families to make difficult decisions.
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“It can be terrifying to know where to turn when your kid is in a crisis and needs treatment,” OHSU research and training scientist for addiction medicine Ryan Cook, a senior study author, said. He stated, “A lot of parents or family members will search for residential care first and find the experience to be incredibly depressing.” How should one proceed? Constructing additional treatment facilities is not the answer. It’s to improve addiction treatment in primary care settings,” King explained. Cook concurred. “System-level changes are needed to ensure effective, affordable treatment options for adolescents,” he stated.
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Frequently asked questions
What challenges are there to accessing treatment for substance addiction?
These barriers may include:
- A complicated system of care to treat SUDs. …
- Lack of interagency coordination and communication. …
- Limited resources and personnel. …
- Lack of mental health services. …
- Insufficient capacity in hospitals to treat SUDs. …
- Transportation barriers. …
- Homelessness and substandard housing.
What are the challenges faced by drug addicts?
Typically, these include a strong desire to take the drug, difficulties in controlling its use, persisting in its use despite harmful consequences, a higher priority given to drug use than to other activities and obligations, increased tolerance, and sometimes a physical withdrawal state.
What are the causes of the risk of addiction during adolescence?
Early aggressive behavior, lack of parental supervision, academic problems, undiagnosed mental health problems, peer substance use, drug availability, poverty, peer rejection, and child abuse or neglect are risk factors associated with an increased likelihood of youth substance use and abuse.
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Disclaimer: The opinions and suggestions expressed in this article are solely those of the individual analysts. These are not the opinions of HNN. For more, please consult with your doctor
