From: Methadone Maintenance Treatment: A Community Planning Guide (© 2009 CAMH)
Your implementation plan should also include client recruitment. Given the stigma and marginalization people who are dependent on opioids often experience, client outreach is a necessary and ongoing part of operation.
Consider proactive recruitment of potential clients who are not likely to access treatment without encouragement and support. You can recruit clients by:
- using peer-based strategies and networks
- partnering with agencies working at the front line or “street” level
- providing information and increasing awareness of your program to health care and social service agencies, physicians, addiction assessment referral centres, addiction and mental health treatment providers.
TIP |
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Make sure clients know what they can expect and that they have options. MMT is not for everyone. They need to know that, even if they have tried MMT in the past, they can try MMT again or seek other forms of treatment. They should know that their relapse may have been linked to the particular program, rather than to their personal failure. |
In Methadone Maintenance Treatment: A Community Planning Guide
Acknowledgements
Introduction
About methadone maintenance treatment
Getting ready
Establishing a community working group
Engaging the community
Developing a methadone maintenance treatment program
Implementing the program
Evaluating the program
Appendix: Do You Know... Methadone
References
Resources