| Summary: | 碩士 === 中興大學 === 國家政策與公共事務研究所 === 99 === The Ministry of Justice, Executive Yuan has been in collaboration with the Department of Health and relevant units to work on the “Pilot Program of AIDS Harm Reduction to Drug Abusers” since 2006. The successful implementation of the program lies in heroin addicts’ personal background factors and abstinence from drug use. Until now, however, there has been a lack of official statistics in this area for reference. Thus, it is essential to conduct an in-depth study to further explore its effectiveness.
This study discusses and analyzes drug abusers’ self-evaluation of treatment effectiveness based on their personal background factors and treatment conditions of participation in the deferred prosecution program combined with the Maintenance Treatment. The results of this research are put forward, offering reference for Ministry of Justice, Taichung District Prosecutors Office, Academic agencies or relevant medical institutions about the effectiveness of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment.
This study adopted a census method, with “subjects’ personal background factors” and “treatment conditions” as independent variables and “subjects’ self-evaluation of treatment effectiveness” as dependent variables. In addition, a quantitative analysis was conducted, and multiple-choice and open-answer questions were employed to help subjects concretely express their opinions on the active deferred prosecution program combined with the Maintenance Treatment.
The research period lasted one month from April 1, 2011. A total of 307 subjects were found to meet the above mentioned criteria, 165 valid responses were gathered, and the valid survey coverage reached 53.7 %.
In terms of self-evaluation of treatment effectiveness, the subjects benefited the most from the following aspects: cutting drug costs, lowering drug-related motivations to commit crime, living a more regular life, reducing the desire to use heroin, and improving family relations. On the other side, the subjects benefited less from the following aspects: reducing the chance to contact drug addiction circles, and increasing the chance to interact with non-drug addiction circles.
To get the most out of the Maintenance Treatment, up to 77% of the subjects considered the active Maintenance Treatment still leaves something to be desired, among which the extension of consultation hours in drug treatment facilities is the most required, followed by enabling more medical facilities to offer drug treatment services, and stepping up patrols in medical institutions to crack down drug dealers.
With regard to subjects’ personal background factors and whether they obtain family support, “gender” and “work property” variables had significant effects on whether they obtain family support, and the other variables were less noticeable. The effects of subjects’ personal background factors on the length of time continuously taking Methadone in hospitals were not remarkable.
Aside from “subjects’ previous average frequency of weekly heroin use” and “previous participation rate in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment” variables, all the other subjects’ personal background factors did not suggest any major effects on subjects’ self-evaluation of treatment effectiveness.
Whether subjects obtain family support for participation in the deferred prosecution combined with the Maintenance Treatment, and the length of time continuously participating in the Maintenance Treatment” had prominent effects on subjects’ self-evaluation of treatment effectiveness.
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