Our Work

January is Substance Use Disorder Treatment Month and new analysis by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found that thousands of Ohioans who need drug or alcohol treatment are not receiving it.

As illustrated above, some of the reasons for not receiving needed care include cost, transportation, lack of provider availability and challenges with insurance.

In recent years, access to mental health and addiction treatment has been a priority for state policymakers. RecoveryOhio’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan lists access to treatment and recovery services as one of the five key pillars of its work. According to the plan, “Numerous resources and services exist, but many Ohioans find them difficult to identify and navigate. Intake into mental health or substance use disorder treatment is too frequently initiated by law enforcement or emergency room services.”

Click here to see a list of mental health and substance use resources from HPIO.

HPIO analysis that was included in its recently released policy spotlight “School-Based Health Care and Medicaid" found that the percentage of children ages 6-18 that were covered by public health insurance alone (e.g., Medicaid, military insurance) or in combination with private insurance, in each county ranges from a low of 9.9% in Delaware County to 53.7% in Hocking County during the 2022-2023 school year, as displayed above.

According to the publication, the federal government in 2014 increased flexibility for states to cover school-based health services for students enrolled in Medicaid (more than 703,000 students in Ohio). The new HPIO policy spotlight explores the opportunities this federal policy change presents for Ohio to leverage Medicaid reimbursement to improve the health and well-being of students.

“Children from families with low incomes, and therefore eligible for Medicaid, often experience more barriers to accessing health care due to factors such as lack of transportation or parent challenges taking time off work,” the report states. “These barriers increase the value of school-based health services for families.”

New data included in HPIO’s recently released data brief “Mental Health Conditions among Ohio Children and Youth” shows that children in Ohio with anxiety were slightly more likely to have moderate or severe anxiety than children around the country, as illustrated above.

In recent years, rates of mental health conditions have increased among Ohio children and youth. As illustrated above, in 2023, a fifth (20%) of middle school students and a third (33%) of high school students in Ohio reported that their mental health was not good most or all of the time.

Childhood mental health conditions are associated with an increased risk of chronic physical health conditions (e.g., diabetes, heart disease), continuing mental health problems and worse employment outcomes in adulthood.

The brief states, "Understanding this data, and engaging children, youth and their parents and caregivers, can lay the foundation for action and policy change."

The data brief is the first in a series of four planned HPIO publications on child and youth mental health that will be released over the next two years.