The Hill (9/24, O’Connell-Domenech ) reports, “Just 44 percent of jails offer incarcerated people with opioid use disorder [OUD] medications like methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone to treat addiction, according to a new analysis of 1,028 jails from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.” The “researchers also note that jails that do offer medication for opioid use disorder mostly offer those drugs to people who are pregnant or who are already receiving the drugs at the time of their arrest.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
HealthDay (9/24, Mundell ) reports researchers found that “even when methadone, naltrexone or buprenorphine were available, only 12.8% of jails made them easily available to anyone with an opioid use disorder.” Study results indicate that “the reason most often cited by jails as to why they weren’t offering the meds to all who needed them was ‘lack of adequate licensed staff’ – about half blamed lack of access on staffing issues.”
Psychiatric News (9/24) reports, “The analysis also showed that smaller jails, jails in areas of greater social vulnerability, and jails that did not have either direct employees or contracted vendors managing health care were less likely to provide OUD medications.”
Related Links:
— “Fewer than half of US jails provide medications for opioid use disorder,”Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech , The Hill, September 24, 2024