Medication treatment for opioid disorders limited at outpatient facilities

Only 34% of outpatient community mental health treatment facilities in 20 states—including four in New England—offer medication treatment for opioid use disorders, according to new research from RAND.
More than 81,000 Americans died from overdoses involving opioids in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The 20 states in the survey have all experienced high drug overdose rates: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“These results do not surprise me at all,” said John M. O’Brien, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist with Mental Health Associates of Maine and...