Common Barriers to Addiction Treatment in Florida

Professional, comprehensive addiction treatment works.

One of the biggest reasons for high rates of drug addiction, in Florida and elsewhere, is that accessing addiction treatment can be daunting—particularly for someone acting on their own behalf from a place of debilitating pain and discouragement.

Excellent Florida drug rehab options exist, but there are often barriers between people with addiction and the treatment they need. Following are some of the most important barriers to substance abuse treatment in Florida, and how to face and overcome them.

Insurance Eligibility

While health insurance plans covered under the Affordable Care Act are required to cover at least some of the expenses of addiction treatment, that’s not nearly enough to help people access treatment. For one thing, not all treatment providers take all insurance. Additionally, high insurance deductibles are a fact of life for many people, and even the non-covered portion of addiction treatment expenses can result in sky-high bills.

Both Medicare and Medicaid offer coverage for addiction treatment services, but finding a facility that accepts one of these insurers and has available beds for new patients can be daunting. Bottom line: effective addiction treatment costs money, and not everyone has the resources they need to pursue treatment.

Provider Shortages

Finding providers that offer addiction treatment services can also be a major hurdle standing between the person with an addiction and treatment. With opioid addiction, in particular, the states have widely varying rules about which doctors, nurses, and physician assistants can provide medications like buprenorphine.

Medication-assisted addiction treatment is considered one of the best ways to overcome opioid addiction, but it can be difficult to find providers that are allowed to prescribe medications for addiction treatment. Furthermore, people often have to wait for appointments opening up, and during that waiting period, the person with the addiction is most likely in the same environment that contributed to their development of addiction. Temptation can be tremendously hard to face while waiting for space in a treatment program to open up.

Insufficient Knowledge of Options

Ads for Florida addiction treatment programs are on every type of media, yet many people don’t realize that they are eligible for treatment in them. Asking for help is the first step, but how can a person take that step if they don’t know about treatment facilities, availability, and cost?

Ideally, the person with an addiction would create a comprehensive strategy for recovery, including detox, rehab, and follow-up. But when they don’t know about their rehab options, they start from a serious disadvantage.

Communication Difficulties

Communication can also be an obstacle that stands between someone with a substance use disorder. Communication problems can come from a lack of providers that speak the same language as the person seeking treatment, or they can come from how programs are operated. Communication is essential because it’s the key to informing people with addictions about their treatment options.

Gaining access to addiction treatment services tends to incorporate all the general obstacles to obtaining other forms of healthcare. What’s more, people who need and want treatment encounter other obstacles as well. Fortunately, help is available for those who are ready to start their road to recovery from addiction. We invite you to contact us to learn more about addiction treatment. Help is available, and you deserve to know all of your options.