For several years, Gateway’s St. Louis Outpatient Program has been incorporating medication assistance to complement the traditional psychosocial treatment modalities provided to clients with substance use disorders. Addiction treatment medications have proven to be an effective intervention to assist clients with detoxification, including in an outpatient setting. The treatment protocols include medications such as Suboxone, Naltrexone, and Vivitrol and vary from client to client based on individual needs and clients’ responses to the medications. Gateway Foundation clinicians in St. Louis have found that medication assistance, particularly for the high number of alcohol- and opioid dependent clients, has reinforced our methods for attacking this challenging addiction. In order to reinforce this clinically based-intervention, Gateway Foundation has partnered with Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) to conduct formal research into strategies to improve the implementation of MAT interventions with our population.
Although the evidence base for MAT is well-established, there remains persistent skepticism within the criminal justice system about the feasibility and impact of promoting medication-assisted treatment. Through Gateway’s participation in this study, we hope to not only improve our client outcomes in St. Louis, but also to provide foundational support to broaden the availability of MAT in additional community corrections markets. In so doing, Gateway continues its commitment to improving the field of correctional treatment.
