Wyoming among best for addiction resources

CASPER (WNE) — A new study has found that Wyoming has the third-best access to addiction treatment in the United States.

Latana Recovery analyzed various surveys to determine the accessibility of addiction centers in each state. In March 2022, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that more than 4,000 people in Wyoming were receiving treatment for alcohol or drug addiction.

Latana Recovery looked at average cost of residential care, percentage of rehab facilities that accept insurance, percentage of individuals struggling with illicit drug dependance or abuse, efficiency of service delivery, overdose death rate and number of rehab facilities.

Each of these indicators were used in evaluating each state.

The state was given a score out of 100 for each indicator. The individual indicator scores were then used to create an overall state score.

Wyoming, which scored a 66.7 overall, was beat out by Maine and Alaska.

Wyoming scored highly in number of facilities accepting insurance, count of rehab facilities and efficiency of service.

Efficiency of service is based on the percentage of individuals who need treatment but are not receiving it. According to the Latana analysis, almost 70% of individuals who need service do not receive it.

While this may seem high, it is actually lower than the percentages in Maine and Alaska.

West Virginia has the lowest percentage of unserved individuals at 66.89%.

Although Wyoming scored well in many categories, its score was dragged down by the sheer cost of rehab care.

According to Latana, the average cost for residential care in Wyoming is almost $66,000. This is the highest average for the cost of residential care out of all of the states.

However, most of the other states’ averages are within $10,000 of Wyoming.

This story was published on July 19, 2024.