title: Implementing the ASAM Criteria in community treatment centers in Illinois: opportunities and challenges. American Society of Addiction Medicine.
abstract: The incorporation of the ASAM Criteria into addiction treatment centers procedure has afforded us an enormous opportunity to add credibility to our treatment. Herein lies perhaps the strongest argument for these criteria. The ASAM Criteria encourage addiction treatment centers to establish themselves as healthcare providers in their own right. The task is now for Illinois addiction treatment providers; particularly community based providers, to prove our credibility through the legitimate use of the criteria. Since most, if not all, of our patients are without means and without knowledge on quality treatment, they become easy targets for substandard or at least unimaginative and uninspired treatment. It is not that community based treatment centers are, by nature, unprincipled treatment warehouses. But it certainly can be said that our centers are frequently the last to change our treatment practices. Certainly we have become "the last resort" for the courts, overburdened mental health centers and overpopulated homeless shelters with little emphasis on clinical quality of care. Overcoming such programmed ways of viewing treatment was difficult specifically for Triangle Center and generally for community treatment providers throughout Illinois. In fact, I dare say that this transition has not occurred in total as many still passively resist this opportunity. Yet others have viewed this change as the breath of fresh air that our profession has long sought. Such variance in opinion ultimately proves that implementation of the ASAM Criteria, in a community based system, is dependent on the clinician and administrators willingness to understand, recognize and apply the Criteria.
authors.affiliation: Purdue University, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heatherton
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*