Hearing from People with Opioid Use Disorder
We interviewed people with lived experience of opioid use disorder treatment to understand what they want in a pharmacy-based methadone model. Following the COBRE Principles for Community Empowering Research we conducted two in-person community advisory board meetings with people in early and long-term recovery from opioid use disorder.
Broadly, these interviews allowed us to identify important advantages, disadvantages, barriers and facilitators to pharmacy-based methadone, which we detail in a peer-reviewed publication available here. The interviews also identified key assumptions for the business models including:
Pharmacy staff anti-stigma training
A need for a private space if observed dosing is required
Urine toxicology testing not taking place at the pharmacy
Overall, the people with lived experience we spoke with were very supportive of pharmacy-based methadone models, especially models that did not perpetuate restrictive OTP practices.