people needing treatment are in the rural areas of Iowa.
“You got large sets of counties in Iowa that are 30 or 40 miles square in diameters and there aren’t many people,” he said. “Having more locally-dispersed places where people can get treatment is an absolute necessity.”
He said that there has been increase in treatment admissions for opioid disorders but the majority of the increase was caused by repeated re-entries.
“People are going into treatment for opioid issues but not staying for one reason or another.”
Arndt added that over the last seven years or eight years many drug treatment programs in the U.S. have instituted the SBIRT — screening, brief interrogation and referral to treatment — approach.
“[SBIRT] forces a marriage between the traditional substance use disorder treatment centers and medical facilities,” he said.
Author: Robert B. Hayek
Robert B Hayek is a reporter for Addiction Now and covers features and local spotlight stories. He previously worked for Fox Sports as a production assistant as well as a writer and reporter for an online website called Real Talk Sports Network. He has lived in Southern California his entire life, is a lover of books and writing and also surfs. Contact Robert at roberth@addictionnow.com
