Three people die every day in Oregon of drug overdoses, many of them young. Yet swiftly connecting teens with help is an uphill battle for their family members.

Just how uphill? Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University quantified family members' struggle to access care by calling 160 treatment centers around the country, posing as relatives of a teen who’d experienced a serious fentanyl overdose. Their study appears in the journal Health Affairs this month.

The researchers found that the family of a teenager with an opioid addiction can expect to spend $26,000 per month on treatment, with an upfront fee of $28,731 for self-paying customers—and a wait time of nearly a month. For-profit treatment centers had more available beds, though averaged triple the price of nonprofit facilities.

“When your kid is in a crisis and needs treatment, it can be terrifying to know where to turn,” ​​says senior author Ryan Cook, research and training scientist in addiction medicine at OHSU. “Many parents or family members will look first for residential care and find the experience profoundly disheartening.” 

Though many families look to Medicaid, the options for Medicaid-paid care were severely limited. Of the 40 states with treatment centers, only 27 had a facility that accepted Medicaid; Oregon was among the states with Medicaid-accepting treatment centers, but at the time of the study, there were zero open beds for those with government insurance. In fact, most Medicaid-accepting facilities nationwide had no available beds, and significantly longer wait times—putting teens without private insurance in a precarious position. Research suggests that people with opioid use disorders are at high risk of overdosing between seeking treatment and receiving it. Teen drug deaths in Oregon jumped by 550 percent from 2018 to 2022. 

But help may be on the way: this month, governor Tina Kotek announced plans to put $25 million in Medicaid profits toward residential behavioral care centers for Oregon youth, adding 100 beds—and a little hope.