Enhanced Outreach Counseling Following Methadone Treatment Discharge

The purpose of this project is to assess whether enhanced outreach counseling (EOC) is an effective outreach strategy for discharged methadone maintenance patients compared to a standard referral procedure. EOC is a brief (30 minute) face-to-face intervention, followed by six weeks of ongoing telephone counseling/case management designed to help eligible out-of-treatment methadone patients re-enter treatment. Several studies have shown those patients who voluntarily re-enter treatment improve significantly following re-enrollment.