The Board of Directors of the American Methadone Treatment Association formed a Program Management Committee during 1997 to develop a series of training symposia for program managers. The Association convened the first management-training symposium in Washington, DC on December 8, 1998 with the assistance of an educational grant from Glaxo Wellcome, Inc.

The symposium began the process of highlighting the Association’s hallmark policy issues in improving the quality of care in methadone treatment programs across the United States:

 

	implementing meaningful patient satisfaction survey instruments;
	changing staff attitudes and improving patient outcome-implementing staff attitudinal surveys;
	preparing methadone treatment programs for accreditation;
	implementing pro active media and public relations strategies in methadone treatment; and
	preventing medical negligence claims in methadone treatment programs.

Approximately 95 individuals participated in this new initiative, representing methadone treatment programs from different regions of the United States. The evaluation results were extremely favorable and our Association has been urged to replicate such management-training symposia in other parts of the country.

We will offer this symposium in different regions, as we are able to access corporate support through educational grants. This kind of training supports our Association’s objective in preparing our associates for the changes.