Attitudes and beliefs towards methadone maintenance treatment among Australian prison health staff

Abstract

Introduction and Aims. Justice Health NSW has one of the most extensive prison-based methadone programmes in the world. We examine prison health staff attitudes towards methadone treatment and compare these with community methadone staff. Design and Methods. A cross-sectional survey of 202 staff employed by Justice Health New South Wales was undertaken in 2003. Results. The mean scores on the various sub-scales were: abstinence-orientation (AO) 2.9 (95% CI 2.8-3.0); disapproval of drug use (DDU) 3.3 (95% CI 3.2-3.4); knowledge (Know) 2.7 (95% CI 2.4-2.9); and toxicity 4.6 (95% CI 4.2-5.0). Both the AO and DDU score were correlated negatively with the Know score (r=-0.37 and r=-0.13, respectively). Prison health staff had higher AO (2.9 vs. 2.6, p0.001) and DDU (3.3 vs. 2.6, p0.001) scores, and lower Know (2.7 vs. 7.0, p0.001) scores than methadone staff working in the Australian community. They were more knowledgeable than US community methadone staff about the toxicity of methadone (4.6 vs. 0.0, p0.001). Discussion and Conclusions. This is the first survey to examine prison health staff attitudes to methadone treatment. Correctional health staff tend to be more abstinence-orientated, more likely to disapprove of drug use, and less knowledgeable about the risks and benefits of methadone than Australian community methadone staff. The findings have important implications for training health staff working in the prison environment with regard to client retention on methadone treatment.