Approaches to Evaluating Individual Practice and Program Evaluation

During my practice, while working with people suffering from alcohol and substance abuse, I will use Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) as a treatment program. MAT combines behavioral and counseling therapy with medication. The major outcomes of this program include recovery, abstinence, and treatment of addiction.  The treatment is effective for patients struggling with substance abuse. Also, it helps lessen the withdrawal signs. There are three medicines generally used in medication-assisted treatment include morphine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone (Maglione et al., 2018). The chances of improvement get increased with the combination of medication-assisted treatment and behavioral health therapies. Behavioral therapies include cognitive group therapy, behavioral therapy, and counseling. MAT can even restrict the euphoric effects of opioids and puts a stop to mental cravings. Most patients have obtained healthy outcomes from a medication-assisted treatment podcast.

MAT has specific goals. As treatment programs, physicians should ensure they prescribe medications to keep the addicts or alcoholics out of withdrawals and physically stable. It should help patients to be able to go about learning how not to use drugs or alcohol and get their life together (Maglione et al., 2018). The program aims to treat the physical aspect of their addiction or alcoholism and the treatment, therapy, or counseling deals with the psychological, emotional, or mental aspects of their addiction. MAT also aims for an increased ability to maintain and obtain employment for the patients and increase their survival rates. Another major goal is to decrease the criminal behavior and drug use of the patients.

The goals of this MAT are measurable since the outcomes will provide evidence of its effectiveness. Specific dates can be set for patients to achieve recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. I will evaluate the effectiveness of MAT using qualitative data and a mixed-method approach. Interviews and assessments will be conducted to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the patients. I will assess treatment satisfaction, social, psychological, and environmental factors concerning the patient’s motivation of maintaining sobriety as a measure of treatment effectiveness (Rioux et al., 2020). Additionally, I will include program satisfaction and demographic questions. Participants will complete questionnaires with measures of treatment satisfaction and demographic questions. The results will be analyzed and provide significant conclusions.

References

Maglione, M. A., Raaen, L., Chen, C., Azhar, G., Shahidinia, N., Shen, M., … & Hempel, S. (2018). Effects of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder on functional outcomes: a systematic review. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 89(1), 28-51. DOI: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000287

Rioux, J., Cuellar, N., Oliver, J., Hsu, P., & Szapkiw, A. (2020). Evaluating Retention Rates in a Medication-Assisted Treatment Program. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 16(9), e149-e151.