Op/Ed: Addiction recovery options are expensive and limited, but they don’t have to be

Learning that Matthew Perry spent around $9 million on private care to help deal with his addiction has highlighted a startling reality for the average American who is unable to spend anywhere near that amount of money to get help.

The average cost in the United States for private in-patient addiction treatment can reach $40,000. The sad truth is, if you’re not exceptionally wealthy, you have so little chance of getting the help you need.

The affordability is one question, but access to necessary care presents a whole other set of hurdles altogether. 

Indiana is among the majority of U.S. states where more people with a mental illness and addictions are housed in jails than in hospitals. We also know that an estimated 65% of inmates in jails and prisons meet medical criteria for substance abuse addiction; and unfortunately only a small minority of these inmates have access to treatment while incarcerated.

Specifically, for inmates with addiction struggles who need holistic medical, mental health and addiction treatment services – not incarceration – my team at Quality Correctional Care is working alongside government officials to help those who can't get the proper care they need, quickly. We’re also committed to solving the affordability problem, as we understand the hurdles local governments face in funding these necessary services. We pride ourselves in looking for creative funding sources to reduce the burden to taxpayers. 

Yet the cost to our communities for the revolving door of incarceration is more than just the expense for a stay in prison. Spending money wisely helps patients become healthy members of our communities, which in turn helps us set up the next generation for success rather than continuing the familial cycle of addiction and criminal activity. 

Before we began operating in 70 of the county jails throughout Indiana, I worked in a local sheriff's office for 14 years handling budgets. It was that experience that led to a startling discovery: Most tax dollars being spent on healthcare for inmates in a county jail involve very little collaboration between medical care providers and mental health providers. What’s more, with all the money spent, most inmates don’t receive proper addiction treatment.

As I’ve learned from my time in that sheriff’s office, and now helping those incarcerated with substance abuse, it is critical to ensure medical care, mental health services, and addiction treatment all fall under the same umbrella. It’s not an overstatement to say this holistic approach is the only solution that will last.

If we don’t fix all of these problems together, we’ll fix none of them.

In Indiana, we also need to solve a massive gap of proximity to care for those who need it. Currently there are only 24 community mental health providers approved to provide care to an underserved population – whether former inmates, low-income families, or the mental ill – throughout all 92 of our counties. The Hoosiers that need these services the most, have the least access to care. Some counties have experienced waitlists of up to 90 days for care. 

With only 24 providers across 92 counties, this raises an obvious question: How are poor, mentally ill individuals – or those who struggle finding work due to a criminal arrest record – expected to travel to another community to get treatment? And one of the biggest needs for these desperate citizens is housing, yet these community mental health departments, already maxed out with time and resources, are the gatekeepers of the in-patient mental health beds available. Prospects have to be seen by one of the officials in order to qualify, but getting an appointment is challenging for all the reasons already mentioned.

My team and I are committed to reforming our current system and helping county officials so that inmates, former inmates or the impoverished can gain access to more than just one community health center for the indigent of our communities.

Additionally, we want to solve the other massive problem of too few locations available with not enough help on hand. Our dream is to offer services to families in need across the state through mobile clinics and/or treatment in lieu of incarceration at in-patient mental health facilities. 

Working at the sheriff’s office, I kept seeing the same inmate names come across my desk, and eventually I started seeing the same names with Jr. or II after them! I watched numerous patients, once released from custody, unable to initiate services for addiction within a reasonable amount of time, with many running out of medication or experiencing a crisis with no one to turn to. These scenarios create more opportunity for relapse, and turbo charge recidivism.

If medical, mental, and addiction services are all included, simultaneously, when helping inmates get back on a better path, I’m confident we’ll reduce recidivism in our state. I’ve witnessed with my own eyes that teaching the incarcerated how to better handle their health and addiction struggles helps them stay out of jail.

I’m afraid that most citizens of Indiana don’t know that these common sense solutions will make a world of difference. But the more we do to tell the truth about the reasonable reforms that will help, and how non-profit organizations can help fill the gaps, the more likely we’ll be to help lawmakers find a path forward.

My dream is for anyone and everyone struggling with mental health and substance abuse to have the best possible chance of receiving the full spectrum of care they need.

Lisa Scroggins is the founder of Quality Correctional Care in Indiana and Q360 Healthcare Alliance, a non-for profit organization focusing on community re-entry for criminal justice involved individuals. She works with elected officials; sheriffs, county commissioners, and county councils statewide to save tax dollars, and her team of medical billing specialists ensure each medical bill is reduced to the lowest payable amount allowed by law.