Despite mental health parity laws passed more than a decade ago, consumers have very little awareness of insurance coverage rights for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Ohio’s insurance laws also conflict with federal laws that don’t allow insurers to limit mental health and substance use disorder services in a more restrictive way than for physical health services. Learn more about the quest for parity in this new report.

In 2016, The Center for Community Solutions released a report on syringe services programs (SSPs) in Ohio, which provided information on the programs that existed at that time, including those developed in response to the state’s 2015 change in regulations authorizing the programs. Syringe services programs prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by providing sterile equipment to people who inject drugs, as well as safe disposal for used injection supplies. In 2016, only six Ohio cities or counties operated SSPs: Cleveland (1995), Columbus (2016), Cincinnati (2014), Dayton (2015), Portsmouth (2011) and Gallia County (2016). Over the last two years, in response to rising HIV and hepatitis C rates, 12 additional programs were created.

Cleveland, like most communities around the country, is a place where your life outcomes can be determined by your ZIP code, and where people who are black face significantly more challenges than white people.