Report: Up to half city's drug-treatment beds filled by residents from the rest of the state
A new report by the city and Blue Cross Blue Shield finds opiate addiction is spiking in Boston just like elsewhere in the state and says we're going to need more treatment beds and programs and soon.
Mayor Walsh said his new Office of Recovery Services, to be headed by Jennifer Tracey, will use the report as the starting point for bolstering services for people fighting substance abuse.
The report found that at any given time, half of the treatment beds in Boston are occupied by residents from other cities and towns.
Also:
The rate of unintentional heroin overdose encounters among Boston residents increased by 76% from FY 2010 to FY 2012, according to data reported by acute hospitals. The number of non-overdose opioid dependence and abuse hospital discharges in Boston increased by 13% from FY 2011 to FY 2012.7 Heroin-specific calls to Boston Emergency Medical Service (BEMS) increased 25% between January and mid-November 2013.
It continued:
Prevalence data on substance use and abuse are the best available indicators of the need for treatment and other services. Boston’s rate of substance abuse prevalence (11.3%), based on respondents’ indication of dependence or abuse of illicit drugs or alcohol in the past year, is roughly comparable to that of other regions within the state. Prevalence rates by region range from a high of 11.6% in Western MA to a low of 9.4% in the Metrowest region of the state.
Boston hospital emergency department (ED) and inpatient admissions for substance use disorder diagnoses also demonstrate the need for treatment programs. For example, close to 1 in 10 of all Boston hospital ED visits and 1 in 20 of all inpatient admissions in 2012 were related to substance use disorder.
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Comments
Slippery slope...
How many Boston residents are taking up beds in treatment centers or using services elsewhere in the state?
Not really
Idea - we could have a state-wide drug abuse treatment system instead of having various little fiefdoms where the smaller towns or more cynical towns can chose to not help their citizens, instead counting on the drug addicts to be drawn to the urban areas of the state.
three important resources ouces
So there are three important resources
All three resources have to be available immediately while the patient recognizes they are in crisis. If they are not, and the patient returns home, they'll use until their use causes another crisis.
Answer: very few. Idiotic
Answer: very few. Idiotic local politicians make sure of that.
Or...
...how many treatment centers exist in other parts of the state?
https://www.google.com/maps/search/drug+treatment+facilities+in+massachu...@42.3372298,-72.2014618,8z
It all evens out
How much water does the Boston use from the Quabbin reservoir?
How much $
Does Boston pump into the state economy? New England economy? Very disproportionately a lot.
Carpetbaggers
It's not only Boston residents running up the meter in the city everyday. Btw how many people do the commuter boats and trains backhaul at peak times?
How about the metro area
How about the metro area stops pumping taxes out to you guys and we use that money to buy our water elsewhere. Have fun living in New Hampshire: the sequel.
Ugh,
Ugh,
Why has everything in life turned into an "us versus them" thing?
I thought Massachusetts people were better than that, at least thats what they say.
Commonwealth
I agree. I think the issue is equity and access to these services.
Solution
Put "Resident Parking Only" over inpatient beds and then ticket people who don't have the proper stickers for their substance abuse problem.
Also, make sure that the signage is posted in a confusing way, to increase the number of tickets available for issue.