Do Methadone Clinics Provide Other Services?

Opiate addictions that span the course of months or years can exert a tremendous toll on a person’s physical and psychological health. Even after addicts enter recovery and maintain abstinence for a time, the residual effects from long-term opiate use place them at ongoing risk of relapse.

Many clinics offer counseling and other supports in addition to methadone medication.

Methadone clinics administer methadone as part of a comprehensive opiate addiction treatment approach. While methadone treats the physical damage caused by chronic opiate use, methadone clinics offer additional services to address the psychological effects of long-term addiction.

As chronic opiate use can leave any number of damaging effects in its wake, the added services offered by methadone clinics take a whole person approach to addiction treatment. In effect, methadone clinics combine these services to create a coordinated treatment process that gives recovering opiate addicts the best chance at long-term abstinence.

The Methadone Maintenance Treatment Approach

Long-term opiate use leaves vital brain processes in a deteriorated state, which accounts for the high potential for relapse. For many in recovery, drug cravings and withdrawal effects can linger after years of abstinence.

Methadone helps a person overcome the physical effects from addiction by supporting weakened brain processes, thereby reducing withdrawal and cravings effects. According to the U. S. National Library of Medicine, the methadone maintenance treatment approach incorporates other treatment services as a means for treating the psychological components that drive addiction.

Other services offered by methadone clinics may include –

• Individual psychotherapy
• Drug education counseling
• Group counseling
• Vocational assistance
• Support group treatment

Needs-Based Treatment Services

Opiate addictions send addicts on a course of self-destruction that –

• Ruins relationships
• Wrecks families
• Causes job loss
• Drains finances

By the time a person enters methadone clinic treatment, addiction may have brought on any number of major problems in his or her life.

After a thorough assessment process, methadone programs draw up a treatment plan that specifically addresses the challenges a person faces in recovery. In effect, methadone program service offerings are provided based on the needs of the person.

Treatment for Co-Occurring Psychological Problems

People who abuse opiates for a year or more will likely develop psychological problems from the damaging effects of opiates on brain function. Under these conditions, a person is battling two disorders that tend to feed off one another. While methadone does a good job at keeping withdrawal and cravings effects at bay, someone dealing with an anxiety or depression disorder can easily lapse back into drug use when life gets stressful.

For this reason, many of the other services offered by methadone clinics include therapy-based treatments. Ongoing psychotherapy, group therapy and support group work can help recovering addicts work through their psychological as well as their addiction issues.

Coordinated Treatment Process

Too often, addicts make it through the detox stage of treatment only to find themselves using within a month’s time. Addiction may start out as a physical dependency, but eventually develops into a psychological dependency over time.

Methadone clinics offer a coordinated treatment approach in terms of addressing both the physical and psychological aspects of addiction. Ultimately, long-term opiate addictions require an in-depth treatment process that addresses all of addiction’s core components.