Developing a Network of Services for Herion Addiction
The past five years has seen a tremendous increase in the use of heroin by the young of all classes and races. In the face of this relative epidemic, a variety of Pennsylvania drug treatment programs have developed which offer some promise for treating a significant number of the afflicted.
It is clear that all treatments do not work for all patients. In fact, most treatment efforts may fail with many patients. In communities with a significant heroin problem, there is a need to develop a comprehensive variety of services so that patients placed in one modality who fail may be picked up in other Pennsylvania drug treatment programs. This requires a network of services with structured communication among treatment facilities, centralized data collection and evaluation, and strong leadership at the local level which can forge alliances between the various parts of the network. For the most part, this has not been done except under some programs supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. The Significant and notable exceptions in this category include the State of Illinois program developed by Dr. Jerome Jaffe and the Yale-New Haven program run by Dr. Herbert Kleber.
A basic requirement for the development of voluntary Pennsylvania drug treatment programs should be the availability of abstinence-based treatment approaches for all patients who desire them. These should include detoxification and group psychotherapy.