Staff perspectives on facilitating the implementation of hepatitis C services at drug treatment programs

Drug users are at risk of acquiring the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although ancillary services available to clients at drug treatment programs are often limited, some of these programs are providing HCV services. Presenting qualitative data, the authors describe the HCV education and/or support services available at four drug treatment programs and examine staff and client perspectives on factors that facilitated the implementation of these services. Major findings include participants' perceptions that their programs had: (1) at least one change agent on staff who promoted the innovation and delivery of HCV services; (2) at least one administrator or director who encouraged and supported the adoption of these services; and (3) a treatment team that tended to collectively "buy into" and value the HCV service. Ultimately, we found that some drug treatment programs are finding creative and nonresource-intensive ways of delivering HCV services despite the existence of significant barriers. While programs need more funding and resources to overcome these barriers, these findings may prove helpful to other drug treatment programs that would like to offer HCV services to at least some of their clients.