For several years, Gateway’s St. Louis Outpatient Program has been incorporating medication assistance to complement the traditional psychosocial treatment modalities used with addicted offenders. Due to minimal resources for other detoxification options, medication assistance has become a common practice with these clients. 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 heroin-dependent clients, has reinforced our methods for attacking this challenging addiction. In order to reinforce this clinically-based evidence, 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 application MAT in additional community corrections markets. In so doing, Gateway continues its commitment to improving the field of correctional treatment.
