Once we’ve had an initial assessment we will arrange a time to meet with you and carry out a comprehensive assessment. The assessment usually takes about 90 minutes.
If we agree that we are the service best placed to help, and you decide you would like treatment, we will develop a treatment plan with you. We encourage your family to be involved in your treatment planning; if they understand your treatment they will be in a better position to support you.
If we are not the best service for you we will provide you with information about other services that may help you.
Opioid treatment is for people who are addicted to opioids such as morphine, poppy seed tea, methadone, heroin, oxycodone and codeine.
If it is assessed that opioid substitution could help you, there are a few tests that we need to carry out to confirm that you are opioid dependent, similarly there are some physical health checks we need to do prior to starting treatment .
The treatment starts on a Monday and we need to see you twice on the first and third days of treatment and then every day at the clinic, to check for signs of intoxication or withdrawal. This is to keep you safe and to get you on the correct dose as soon as we can.
During this time we expect you to participate in your treatment plan. Once you are on the correct dose and your treatment plan is complete your medication will be dispensed at a pharmacy every day. You can choose which pharmacy you would like to consume your medication at, as long as the pharmacist agrees to dispensing to you. You will see your doctor as frequently as necessary, but at least every 6 months. You will see your case manager more frequently; the frequency of this is determined jointly between you and your case manager but will be at least 3 monthly.
We are a specialist service so when people have achieved stability we transfer their treatment to primary care.
