MMT for clients in rural or remote settings​

Copyright © 2009 CAMH

Access to general medical care is a problem in most rural or remote settings, so finding a physician and pharmacist willing to offer methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is also more challenging in these regions. If access to MMT is to improve for clients in rural and remote areas, awareness of the issue needs to increase, and support for programs from community members, health care providers and local politicians is needed.

Service levels could be increased by:

• recruiting local family physicians and pharmacists to MMT teams
• recruiting visiting MMT physicians to work with local health care providers
• training nurse practitioners and integrating them into treatment programs
• opening satellite offices, perhaps in local mental health agencies
• establishing mentoring programs that enable practitioners to network with physicians and pharmacists who already provide MMT services
• establishing mobile teams to dispense methadone and offer needle exchange.