Addiction Meets its MATCH

The Behavioral Health Network took a bold step in the fight against the opioid and heroin epidemic in March 2016, when the organization launched an extensive campaign to advertise its wide range of services for the treatment of addiction-related issues.

The campaign, called MATCH™, or Medication Assisted Treatment Close to Home, featured print, radio and digital advertisements that appeared across the state, educating the public about the seven opioid and heroin treatment centers run by Rushford, Natchaug and The Hospital of Central Connecticut (Rushford is scheduled to open an eighth center in Avon in fall 2016.)

A key component of the campaign was to find a way to bring seven different locations with seven different phone numbers and seven different names under one umbrella, to make it easy for potential clients to find us. By branding it as MATCH, which has since been trademarked by Hartford HealthCare, and utilizing a single phone number and call center with staff that answers calls 24 hours per day, we were able to accomplish that.

Another crucial aspect of the campaign was our ability to measure success. From March –July the campaign generated more than 180 phone calls and we were able to track where people called from, where they heard about us and what facility they were referred to.

A top priority item for the BHN, medication-assisted treatment helps people struggling with addiction into recovery by using medications such as Suboxone® or Naltrexone in combination with relapse-prevention therapy and group and individual counseling. The MATCH campaign marked the first full-scale advertising campaign for the BHN, and it has been so successful that it is being used as a model for other marketing efforts. At right is an example of some of the advertising materials used in the campaign.