Intravenous drug users that adhere to methadone maintenance treatment and demonstrate positive behaviour may find their treatment expenses cut, as a motivation tool to keep patients in the program.

Recently, Foshan Municipal Health Bureau together with The Police Bureau and Drug Control Office made a summary on community based methadone maintenance treatment and identified the problems faced over the past year. These problems included; patients’ lack of continued adherence to the treatment, patients returning to illicit drug use and the general low enrollment in the program amongst drug users.

Until now, 608 patients including 8 HIV positive patients, are being treated at 3 community based methadone maintenance treatment centres in Foshan City. Seventy percent of these patients were reported to have continued their treatment.

The majority of these 608 patients are aged between 25 and 40 years old. In the first year of service, at Foshan No 3 People’s Hospital and Shunde Wu Zhongpei Memorial Hospital, there are 284 and 289 patients enrolled in methadone treatment respectively. In December 2007 Naihai Dali Hospital opened up. 35 patients have enrolled, so far.

The Shunde Wu Zhongpei Memorial Hospital is currently in the process of implementing a pilot project funded by the National CDC. The project aims to increase patient enrollment and encourage continued adherence at the centre by using one-on-one counseling and motivation methods. These interventions will be scaled up nationwide. The current challenge faced is that thirty percent of patients have dropped out from treatment programs so far.

The number of patients enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment centres accounts for a very small percentage of the registered drug users in Foshan city, where as The Police Bureau reported, there are 6000 injecting drug users. Beside this, only seventy percent of patients continue to adhere to the treatment. The main reasons for the drop outs include; the patients’ fear of being put into rehabilitation or detox centres after disclosing their personal information, stigma, and the difficulty of traveling to the centre everyday.

This year, Foshan Municipal Health Bureau will set up a regular referral system in partnership with related departments, such as; The Police Bureau and Drug Control Office. This referral system will strengthen patient enrollment in the methadone maintenance treatment facilities that patients enter after completing rehabilitation or detox programs, in order to provide community based service and prevent patients from relapsing back into drug use.