The Cost Of Drug Dependency

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

THE COST OF DRUG DEPENDENCY: Drug Dependency

Substance abuse has been a part of the healthcare landscape for decades, but only recently has the medical community-and society at large-fully recognized drug dependency as a "disease." Such attitudes have prompted insurance companies to include drug treatment in their health benefit designs. Of course, skyrocketing healthcare costs across the board beg the question: How much does the preventable problem of drug dependency tax an otherwise strained healthcare system? And what can be done to ensure that other areas of healthcare don't suffer as drug-dependent patients take up beds and emergency rooms-not to mention managed care dollars?

Fast Facts report:

http://www.healthleaders.com/magazine/2004/aug/factfile.php?month=aug&year=2004

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

I like the definition thing

But the problems lays in the medical profession who got them addicted to begin with and then deals with it by giving them more because its easier to give then to deal with it.

[Shell5]

Lots of diseases are preventable. People who are sick and need help take up healthcare dollars. It's unfortunate. It's also unfortunate that many people with the disease of addiction don't get help at all. They die first because they don't have the money to get help. I was considered indigent when I went into treatment. I was not working as a RN at the time. Thank God for Austin Recovery Center who took me in and people who paid my way. I had no insurance.

I don't agree that the term "disease" has prompted insurance companies to include drug treatment in their plans. Lots of these companies more than likely already had drug treatment included in their plan to begin with. I hope that companies will begin to make drug treatment part of the plan as people will be able to recover from this devastating disease and get back into the workforce like I did, or not....they will die, like my mother did on the street at 0400 of a drug overdose because she had a "disease." The term "disease" has made it a little easier for people who are in recovery to be better able to accept themselves and their illness a little better. However, the stigma and judgement of people who don't understand can be difficult at times. Thanks to Texas Peer Assistance Program for Nurses (TPAPN)-program for nurses with substance abuse problems and mental illness.