Guide to Indispensable Criteria for Starting-up and Operating Treatment Centers for People with Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders

The WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence defines treatment as the process that begins when psychoactive substance users contact a health provider or other community service and may continue through a succession of specific interventions until the highest attainable level of health and well-being is reached.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 6 considers treatment as the provision of one or more structured interventions designed to manage health and other problems as a consequence of drug abuse and to improve or maximize personal and social functioning.