Brandywine Counseling

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction is available at multiple BCCS Treatment Centers serving all of Delaware. Same-day medication is available in most cases. Everyone who presents is seen by staff, and same day support services are available to all.

In the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) model, medication is used in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies. Medications can reduce the cravings and other symptoms associated with withdrawal from a substance by occupying receptors in the brain associated with using that drug (agonists or partial agonists), blocking the rewarding sensation that comes with using a substance (antagonists), or inducing negative feelings when a substance is taken. MAT is primarily used for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

Medication-Assisted Treatment with methadone, buprenorphine (brand names: Suboxone, Subutex), or extended-release injectable naltrexone (brand name: Vivitrol) plays a critical role in the treatment of opioid use disorders. According to the latest survey of opioid treatment providers, more than 300,000 people received some form of Medication-Assisted Treatment for an opioid use disorder in 2011.

Opioid agonist therapies with methadone or buprenorphine reduce the effects of opioid withdrawal and reduce cravings. They have been shown to increase retention in treatment and reduce risk behaviors that lead to transmission of HIV and viral hepatitis, such as using opioids by injection. Medication-Assisted Treatment with extended-release injectable naltrexone reduces the risk of relapse to opioid use and helps control cravings.

Individual Therapy

Counseling is provided at the individual and group level. Individual therapy focuses on reducing or stopping substance use, skill building, adherence to the recovery plan, and social, family, and professional/educational outcomes.

Individual therapy is a collaborative process that facilitates the client’s progress toward mutually determined treatment goals and objectives. Counseling includes methods that are sensitive to individual client characteristics and to the influence of significant others, as well as the client’s cultural and social context. During individual sessions, counselors work with clients to establish realistic, achievable goals consistent with achieving and maintaining recovery, promote client knowledge, skills, and attitudes that contribute to a positive change in substance use behaviors, and facilitate client identification, selection, and practice of strategies that help sustain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for maintaining treatment progress and preventing relapse.

Counselors  work with clients to recognize and discourage behaviors inconsistent with progress toward treatment goals, and encourage and reinforce actions beneficial in progressing toward their goals. Counselors can help facilitate the development of basic and life skills associated with recovery, and adapt counseling strategies to the individual client characteristics, including but not limited to, disability, gender, sexual orientation, developmental level, culture, ethnicity, age, and health status.