Back [[Framework to understand addiction management challenges]]
_(Challenges within the healthcare/service team itself)_
## Skill & Training Gaps
- **Limited expertise**: Too few addiction-trained clinicians, generalist staff feel underprepared
- **Knowledge deficits**: Lack of training in withdrawal management, motivational interviewing, harm reduction, medication-assisted treatment
- **Skill mismatches**: Non-physician team members lack appropriate skills; peer workers need more support
## Attitudes & Stigma
- **Moralizing views**: Some providers hold judgmental attitudes about addiction ("willfulness" vs. medical condition)
- **Stigma within teams**: Embarrassment about working with addiction patients; viewing them as "difficult"
- **Therapeutic alliance problems**: Non-empathic staff relationships, poor rapport, lack of trust
## Team Dynamics
- **Workload issues**: High caseloads, burnout, staff shortage, fatigue
- **Role conflicts**: Tensions between peer workers and program staff; unclear role boundaries
- **Communication gaps**: Poor interdisciplinary coordination, lack of team meetings