Friday, April 19, 2024
4/19/2024
Substance abuse, involving alcohol, drugs, or both, negatively impacts people, families and communities. The provision of services aimed at preventing and treating substance use disorders and related problems in adults and youth is critical to achieving overall behavioral and physical wellness. In Ohio, Medicaid-covered individuals depend upon primary care settings for physical healthcare as well as behavioral healthcare services. Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) seeks to fund the bi-directional integration of physical and behavioral healthcare within three grantee facilities representing counties classified under the four geographical regions in the state. Ohio’s 2016 State Health Assessment identified mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes as healthcare priorities from a review of 211 local public health department and hospital assessments/plans. Ohio faces many behavioral health challenges, such as poor access to care and high prevalence of depression in youth and young adults, also among the challenges, the upsurge in opioid-related deaths has positioned the state in the top of the nation’s opioid-related overdose deaths. Of Ohio’s publicly-funded services, opiate-related diagnoses (heroin and prescription opioids) accounted for 37 percent of addiction treatment admissions in 2014, a substantial increase from the seven percent in 2001. In 2015, unintentional injuries, with 84.9 percent attributed to opioid drug overdoses, and lung cancer were the two leading causes of premature death in Ohio. Addiction to opiates may be the greatest health and well-being challenges the state faces. A sharp rise in the number of babies discharged with neonatal abstinence syndrome and a staggering jump in the number of children placed in state custody due to parental opioid addiction, also suggests that the consequences of the opiate epidemic are far-reaching and will have long-term effects on Ohioans. With Ohioans’ chronic diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, combined with growing behavioral health issues, such as substance use disorder, and coupled with poor nutrition, it is not surprising that Ohio spends more on health care than most other states. Several national scorecards, including America’s Health Rankings (2015), Commonwealth State Scorecard (2015), and Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index (2014), placed Ohio in the bottom quartile of states for health outcomes. Ohio’s population health outcomes performance has steadily declined relative to other states over the last few decades, dropping from a rank of 27 in 1990 to 39 in 2015 according to America’s Health Rankings.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
