Opioid Treatment, Section 2. General Program Standards
$149
Leads to certification with duration:
1 year
CARF Standards (2025 SMY) / OTP

Opioid Treatment, Section 2. General Program Standards

For an organization to achieve quality services, the persons served are active participants in the planning, prioritization, implementation, and ongoing evaluation of the services offered. A commitment to quality and the involvement of the persons served span the entire time that the persons served are involved with the organization. The service planning process is individualized, establishing goals and objectives that incorporate the unique strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences of the persons served. The persons served have the opportunity to transition easily through a system of care. 

This curriculum examines how opioid treatment programs utilize a person-centered screening and assessment process to determine a person’s eligibility for services and ensure a comprehensive program structure that maximizes opportunities for persons served to participate.  Persons are actively involved in the direction of their services through a person-centered planning process, including planning for transition to other levels of care or other services, or discharge from services.  Standards address practices for the use of FDA-approved opioid agonist treatment medications used in the treatment of opioid addiction, practices for programs who provide other medication services, promotion of nonviolent practices, and best practices for ensuring quality records.  Also included is a course on the specialty standards for programs that deliver services via information and communication technologies.

Curriculum content

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    This 2025 course describes how effective staffing, structure, program/service design, and adequate resources can help support maximum participation of persons served and the achievement of quality outcomes, including recovery, improved health and well-being, and successful integration into the community. It also addresses how can support positive relationships with the communities in which they operate, and the role of peer supports in service delivery.

    • Lesson 2.A. Program/Service Structure (OTP)

  • This 2025 course addresses how programs employ a person-centered process to determine a person's eligibility for services, and the organization's ability to provide them. To increase access to needed services, programs minimize wait times throughout the process, and use standardized and appropriate admission criteria. Programs gather sufficient assessment information for comprehensive, person-centered planning and ensure that persons are appropriately oriented and understand what to expect.  Specific considerations for women and persons served who are pregnant are also addressed in the course.​

  • This 2025 course describes how programs engage persons served in planning and directing their services, and how individualized strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences are reflected in person-centered planning and addressed through service delivery.

  • This 2025 course describes how early and adequate preparation and planning helps support ongoing recovery or well-being throughout the transition and/or discharge process and facilitates successful continuity of care.

  • This 2025 course addresses requirements of the standards related to medication control, administering, and prescribing, and examines how some programs effectively integrate medication as a component of treatment.

  • This 2025 course addresses requirements of the standards related to medication control, administering, and prescribing, and examines how some programs effectively integrate medication as a component of treatment.

  • This 2025 course describes how programs promote the use of safe, supportive treatment interventions and only employ seclusion and/or restraint as actions of last resort to mitigate imminent risk to persons served or others, in accordance with legal policies, procedures, and protocols.

  • This 2025 course addresses how programs develop and maintain complete and accurate records to ensure that appropriate individuals have access to relevant clinical and other relevant information regarding persons served.

  • This 2025 course focuses on systems and procedures that provide for the ongoing monitoring of the quality, appropriateness, and utilization of services provided. This is largely accomplished through a systematic review of the records of the persons served that assists the program in improving the quality of services provided to each person served.

  • This 2025 course focuses on standards related to delivering individualized services through information and communication technologies. Standards address written procedures; training provided to personnel, persons served, and families/support systems; considerations related to privacy/confidentiality; equipment maintenance; and emergency procedures.