Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap is a $10-million national program of the Open Society Institute. This initiative is designed to create an awareness of—and increase resources to close—an alarming treatment gap: currently, four out of five Americans who need drug and alcohol addiction treatment are unable to get it. The initiative aims to mobilize public support for expanded treatment by increasing public funding, broadening insurance coverage, and achieving greater program efficiency.
To ensure that quality treatment is available in local communities for all who seek it, three elements are critical:
- Insurance: Addiction diagnoses and treatment should be recognized as a health/medical condition covered by specific benefits in all existing and future public, semi-public, and private health plans
- Appropriations: The expansion of public and private appropriations to pay for treatment at all levels until universal health plan coverage reduces the need for special categorical funding
- Efficiency: The engagement, integration, and retention of individuals into treatment more quickly as a critical means of using existing resources more effectively
These three strategies must be driven and informed by a holistic and integrated communications strategy for education and advocacy across all stakeholders. The initiative is supported by a national communications campaign showcasing the work of grantees and generating a nationwide dialogue about best practices.
Eight sites across the United States have been selected to demonstrate model approaches to closing the addiction treatment gap. These include:
- Arkansas
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- New York
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- Tarrant County, Texas
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap builds on the progress made by the Open Society Institute through its OSI-Baltimore initiative.
