One in Five Young Adults Need Rehab
More than one in five young people in the United States aged 18 to 25 were classified as needing treatment in the past year for alcohol or illicit drug use, but of those seven million people less than one in 10 actually received alcohol and drug treatment.A new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that 93% of young people who need a specialty treatment facility did not get it.
"Substance use disorders are preventable and treatable yet we continue as a Nation to allow the lives of 1 in 5 young people and their families be torn apart by substance abuse," said SAMHSA Acting Administrator, Eric Broderick, in a news release. "As a nation we must redouble our efforts to prevent substance abuse in the first place and ensure treatment is available to those in need."
Little Effort to Get Help
Some of the study findings include:
- Of those young people who needed treatment but did not get it, 96% did not think they needed help.
- Among the 4% who believed they needed help, but did not receive it, only 32.2% made any effort to get help.
- Among young adults, 17.2 percent needed treatment for alcohol disorders, 8.4 percent for illicit drug disorders and 4.4 percent for a combination of alcohol and illicit drug disorders.
The SAMHSA report found that having insurance or not, and the kind of insurance they have, plays a role in whether or not young people seek treatment.
Young adults covered by Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were more than three times as likely to receive specialty treatment compared with those with private insurance.
Those without insurance or with other forms of insurance were more likely to receive treatment compared with those with private insurance.
The full report, "Young Adult's Need for and Receipt of Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use Treatment: 2007," is available online.
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Comments
What a fantastically misleading article! Every time an article starts to quote nebulous facts, documented with statistical data, be afraid, be very afraid.
One in five families is suffering the effects of a family member under the lash of substance abuse. The number of families suffering such hardship would go down dramatically if the War on Drugs focused on education and treatment, rather then guns, jails, and criminalization, which punishes youthful curiosity and mistakes, with destroyed hopes and dreams. Destroyed lives because of a prison record that can be googled by any potential employer. How does prison help substance abuse?
The insurance companies who currently hold the purse stings to quality recovery, have effectively reduced in-patient care to the wealthy few. Those who’s families can afford the care, and the big corporations who have large EAP [employee assistance programs] are the predominant users of long term quality treatment. Today an insurance company would rather send you to treatment for only seven days, which does not work but is much cheaper, unfortunately such reprehensible behavior by insurance companies is adding a greater burden to the family, and the community.
The bottom line is these articles, catch the eye through misleading titles, and talk about the problem, like talk will make the problem go away. The problem will only go away when people are educated and helped; not when people are persecuted and abandoned.
Hello,
Your reference to the report “Young Adult’s Need for and Receipt of Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use Treatment: 2007″, has a bad link attached to it, and is not available to the public.
The full report can be found here http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/157/YoungAdultsDrugTxt.cfm
If you can update your link, we would appreciate it.
Susette
SAMHSA Web Team
I changed the link to the SAMHSA full report. Thanks for letting me know that it had changed.
BuddyT