March 2004

The National Treatment System: Outpatient Methadone Facilities

This report presents facility-level data on outpatient methadone treatment facilities nationwide from Phase I of the Alcohol and Drug Services Study (ADSS). Phase I of ADSS consisted of a mail questionnaire collected by telephone interview with facility directors at a nationally representative sample of 2,395 substance abuse treatment facilities, stratified by treatment type: hospital inpatient, non-hospital residential, outpatient predominantly alcohol, outpatient predominantly methadone, and combined treatment types. The data were collected for a point-prevalence date of October 1, 1996, and for the most recent 12-month reporting period of the facility. This report focuses on those facilities identified as being outpatient methadone, either as the only service provided or in combination with other types of substance abuse treatment. A sample of over 400 outpatient methadone facilities participated in the survey, with a weighted national estimate of 688 facilities providing outpatient methadone treatment.