The effectiveness of the methadone treatment program in the reduction of drug addiction in Ilala municipality, Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of the methadone treatment program in the reduction of drug addiction problem in Ilala Municipality. Despite the establishment of medication centres for treating drug addicts in Ilala Municipality, some of the victims tend to dropout from treatment services and continue using drugs. The study was guided by three research objectives: to examine the enrolment process of the drug addiction victims in the program; to examine activities conducted in methadone treatment program in Ilala Municipality, and to determine the perception, willingness and level of participation of the victims in methadone treatment program. The study used a case study approach. A sample of 100 respondents was drawn from the targeted population. Purposive sampling was used to select the study area and key informants while simple random sampling was used in the selection of respondents for interviews, and snow ball sampling was again used to find respondents who were inaccessible like drug dependents out of Medication Assistant Treatment around Ilala community and some key informants. The study applied Focus Group Discussion (FGD), in-depth interviews, and questionnaire methods in data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data analysis was done through content analysis while quantitative data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) programme. The findings show that victims require long-term and episodes of care to achieve the ultimate goal of stopping drug use and recovery. Patients out of Medication Assistance Treatment are willing to join methadone treatment program but they fail due to long process and criteria set for enrolment. Patients provided false information in counselling session, in filling the forms and in blood test. There were about 40% of dropout patients from Medication Assistant Treatment due to various reasons like financial problems. Key findings revealed that, methadone program targets victims particularly that injecting heroin. The methadone program constituted several daily and full time activities depending on the situations and the specific profession and specialization of the individual practitioner. Regardless of the various challenges the program has been facing such as big number of patients in MAT, it is effective in reduction of the drug addiction problem. Therefore, the society should be educated and enlightened on the program to erase stigmatization towards patients with drug dependence.