Federal officials announced today Ohio will receive nearly $2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to bolster drug treatment programs.
Some 44 states, including Ohio, are sharing the $53 million to fight the nationwide opioid and heroin epidemic.
The awards were made by two agencies within HHS, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control or CDC.
Ohio, and the other states, will use the new money for treatment and prevention programs and to help the CDC better track the number of drug-related overdoses.
Tom Stuber is chief executive officer of the non-profit LCADA Way Wellness and Recovery. He oversees seven different treatment programs in Lorain and Medina counties. Prevention is important, but to really tackle the problem Congress needs to change archaic Medicaid rules limiting treatment facilities to sixteen beds for low-income patients, he said.
“That would make a bigger difference than a couple million dollars coming to the state,” Stuber said.
In Cuyahoga County nearly 1,400 people died between 2010 to 2015 from drug overdoses.
