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) 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.