CARE PROVIDERS AND PATIENTS’ INSIGHTS ON IMPROVING SERVICE DELIVERY IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER TREATMENT CENTERS IN KADUNA, NORTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria’s substance use/disorder treatment landscape is characterized by a myriad of challenges. This quantitative study explored the perceptions of care providers and patients across public and private centers in Kaduna State regarding strategies that patients, management and government can implement to improve substance use disorder treatment service delivery. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive research design and randomly sampled 86 care providers and 144 patients. Data was generated via questionnaire and analysed descriptively. The findings revealed that care providers emphasized the need for facility management to enhance human resources, compensation and staff welfare while patients irrespective of facility type prioritized establishment of aftercare support group (24.8% in public centers and 38.7% in private centers). Furthermore, 18.6% of patients in public centers sought for improved staff- patient relationship whereas (25.8%) in private centers emphasized participatory decision making in care process. The findings also highlighted that, care providers in public centers primarily advocated for government interventions in enhancing staffing capacities and reducing treatment cost. In contrast, care providers in private centers stressed the need for regulatory oversight and enforcement. Patients across both public and private centers uniformly advocated for increase access to treatment and rehabilitation centers as well as subsidized treatment cost. The study concludes that, combined insight from care providers and patients’ provide multifaceted strategies that are center specifics while emphasizing the need for patients-centered care, staff development  and government support. The study recommends the implementation of the care provider enabled and patient-needs centered suggestions derived from the study.