PATIENT HANDBOOK

Requesting and Approving Take-Home Status

Take-home medication may be given to you when in the reasonable judgment of the clinical team and medical director you have met the criteria for unsupervised medication. In order to be eligible for take-home medication you must be in compliance with all State and Federal regulations. Continued responsible behavior is required in order to maintain this privilege.

• You must review and sign the “Screening for Take-home Privileges”.
• You will be informed of the length of time it will take for the screening process.
• The treatment team will review the request within two weeks. The team will consider the following in determining granting an extension of take-home privileges:
• You be absent of drug abuse (narcotic and non-narcotic) including alcohol, as evidenced by consecutive negative drug tests.
• You must be attending regular clinic visits, including counseling, groups, etc.
• You must have absence of known recent criminal activity (e.g., drug dealing)
• There must be stability in your home environment and social relationships. Living with a known addict and/or drug abuser or being employable and choosing not to work or doing something meaningful may be negative factorstaken into consideration regarding take home status.
• How long you’ve been in comprehensive maintenance treatment with absence of illicit drug use.
• State authorities will define length of time in treatment in order to access take-home privileges.
• If you are on time-limited treatment protocols, you are not eligible to receive take-home privileges.
• You must ensure that take-home medication can be safely stored within your home and that your methadone medications will be kept out of reach of children.
• We will weigh the rehabilitative value of decreasing the frequency of your clinic attendance against potential risks diversion.
• You must maintain financial stability at the program at all times.

Take-home doses may be granted in emergency cases.These would include medical emergency, acute illness, family crisis, job-related travel, etc. vacation and travel doses which may be granted to reliable patient if the physician deems the request to be reasonable.Take-home requests for vacations must be made at least 14 days prior to the pick up date.

It is illegal to remove methadone from its container for any reason other than to take the medication as legally prescribed.The empty medication bottles must be returned to SOAR upon the next visit.The take-home medication bottles must not be altered or destroyed.At any time while you are on take-home status you may be requested to return to the clinic with your medication supply.This may be done at random for quality assurance purposes or due to suspicion of medication tampering or diversion.