A History of the Treatment of Women Who Abuse Alcohol
...hat the same standards cannot be used when dealing with men and women and alcohol abuse has been a large step in the advancement of alcohol treatment. As more current studies are conducted and the results are analyzed, the rehabilitation field will continue to advance in ways that were never before known. One of the hardest parts of women’s recovery is learning to focus on themselves. They feel selfish when they start treatment and have to put all of their time and energy into recovery. Many women who abuse alcohol have low self esteem, only adding extra stress to recovery. There are many barriers both external and internal that discourage women from entering treatment. Society can cause many external barriers to discourage women from entering treatment. There is a lack of institutional mechanisms that identify women who abuse alcohol in the work place. Men are more likely to be identified with alcohol abuse at work simply because more men are employed. Prisons for women are less likely to have substance abuse treatment. Physicians misdiagnose alcohol abuse in women, often attributing symptoms of abuse to depression. Women delay treatment because their families press them to stay home and care for them, or because of a lack of child care. Lastly, women earn less money than men and the cost of treatment is a significant obstacle to treatment. Major internal barriers for women include stigma, guilt, and shame and these lead to denial of a drinking problem. Many women are afraid their friends and family will reject them if they find out they are abusing alcohol. They are afraid to seek treatment because of the negative attitudes attached. Women who abuse alcohol are often seen as sexually promiscuous, irresponsible, and negligent of their children. Many are just afraid they will lose their children. It has been long known that women abuse alcohol but they have fallen through the cracks when it comes to recognizing and treating alcohol abuse. As mentioned earlier, women who are addicts have low self esteem which can hurt their recovery process. Drinking behavior differs with age, life role, and marital status of women. Many times a woman’s drinking resembles that of her husband or close friends. Contrary to popular belief, women who have multiple roles (e.g., married women who work outside the home) may have lower rates of alcohol problems than do older women. The incidence of alcohol dependence is greater among women aged 35-49. Black and Hispanic women are more likely to abstain from drinking than white women, although equal proportions of black and white women drink heavily. Women think that media advertisements have no influence on them. Alcohol advertisements tell women that drinking is a way to express their frustrations by being defiant. Alcohol advertisements tell women to drink as a way to escape their problems and offer a release from inhibitions. Alcohol ads try to tell women that by drinking they will become more attractive, sophisticated, desirable, and physically fit. In reality all alcohol really does for women is cause metabolism to decrease, hormone levels to fluctuate, and female alcoholics have a higher death rate compared to those of male alcoholics. With changes in society in the last 50 years women have more purchasing power and are therefore bombarded with advertisements that drinking will help to improve their independent images. One in four drug abusers is a woman. Their drugs of choice include alcohol, cocaine, crystal meth, amphetamines, and heroin. Among women, it seems that drug abuse effects their health and their family differently. It progresses differently and requires different treatment approaches (NIDA). It is a common misconception that alcohol addiction and abuse among women is only prevalent in lower socioeconomic classes. In reality, women of all races, income groups, levels of education and types of communities need treatment for alcohol addiction (NIDA). In a field where you are helping large numbers of people, it would be hard for someone not to start categorizing into groups and giving them all the same treatment program. For instance, not every reported case from the same socioeconomic class would be the same, different cases with different races would be different as well. It is hard to remember that alcohol abuse treatments are tailored to an individuals needs. With a tailor fitted treatment program, consumers can learn to control their condition and end up having a normal, productive life. People in treatment for alcohol abuse will learn behavioral treatments and also may have to take other medications to ease them off the harmful addictions. There are several different types of therapy and counseling available. Some of these include counseling, psychotherapy, support groups, or family therapy (NIDA). Women probably face many more health risks then men when looking at the complicated health care that comes along with being addicted to a drug. According to NIDA, some of these issues are listed as follows, but not limited to: Poor nutrition and below average weight · Low self esteem · Depression · Physical abuse · Unexpected pregnancies · (If pregnant) Pre-term labor / early delivery · (If pregnant) Loss of child due to several circumstances · Many medical and infectious diseases (example: high blood pressure and heart rate) · Sexually transmitted diseases · HIV / AIDS These problems are serious and life threatening and, for women who have addiction alcohol, this could be a daily battle to overcome or avoid. It is interesting to look at some of the different treatment plans that women are offered. One of the most successful types of treatment meets the basic need of women. These types of treatment include, but are not limited to, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, job counseling, job training, parenting training, family therapy, couples counseling, medical care, child care, social services, social support, psychological assessment, mental health care, assertiveness training, and family planning. These types of things are not prevalent in all types of training, but the successful ones contain most or all of them. If the above list is examined, it shows basic needs that most of us can get on a daily basis. Apparently, the women who are addicted to drugs and alcohol have no way of getting these basic services. When they do have complete access to these basic needs, their treatment and their improvement rates are extremely high (NIDA). Reports show that when a woman has a consistent and continuing relationship with her treatment provider, success rates are also extremely high. New Directions For Women is a non-profit corporation based in California that deals strictly with women’s issues and how to get women off of the addiction path. There are several of this type of unit around the U.S. but, for research purposes, this was the most detailed one. This program offers a variety of programs that cater to each woman's individual needs. They focus on the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of recovery. The primary focus at NDFW centers on “responsible recovery” and long-term sobriety. Treatment at NDFW includes a variety of proven programs that teach holistic life and relapse-prevention skills. Because money may be low with women who have issues, these types of places are usually affordable and can be a safe haven where women find independence and support, while healing the wounds inflicted by addiction (NDFW). This treatment plan works best because it is tailor fitted to each woman who walks through their door. The comprehensive treatment center encompasses chemical dependency, and medical and mental health assessments, in addition to a wide array of treatment programs. From the primary program and introduction to 12-step recovery, to outpatient and intermediate living, to aftercare, they tailor the treatment to the individual needs of their consumer. In addition to the basic 90-day program most treatment centers offer, they offer many supplemental programs, including work search assistance, family support groups and ongoing clinical assessments for relapse prevention (NDFW). There are many benefits to only treating women. Romantic involvements, care-taking and sex are common coping mechanisms in handling the pain of drug and alcohol withdrawal (NIDA). These types of relationships are more likely to develop in co-ed programs, and can interfere with the recovery process. By treating only women, the amount of potential distractions is reduced and women are helped to avoid falling into familiar care-taking patterns. Most of these places that cater to only women encourages its residents to develop friendships and positive support networks where women cooperate rather than compete. Additionally, bearing witness to another woman's "model" recovery has proven to be a remarkably healing event (NDFW). A daily program for a woman in an all female facility would include some of the following. These are extracted from the daily living plan from the New Directions For Women. Primary treatment lasts 4-6 weeks and include a highly structured residential program consisting of educational courses, process groups, recovery planning, relapse prevention and community support groups and individual therapy that incorporates the needs of the whole woman (NDFW). The second step in this program would be ‘Phase Two’. It is from 6-8 weeks and includes a supportive and goal-directed phase of treatment that helps women return to their careers, enroll in educational programs and/or find employment for the first time. The additional phase of treatment for working women who continue to need the structure and support of a safe and sober living environment provides education and practice in the tools necessary to prevent relapse. Some of the things done on a daily basis would be: adult daily living skills, group counseling, and individual counseling, alcohol and drug testing, yoga/fitness, medical assessment, 12 step work, 12 step meetings, relapse prevention (NDFW). For obvious reasons, women with children would need special considerations when it comes to substance abuse facilities. These are just a few of the things that they offer to families. There are several different treatment options that will cater to any woman’s needs. Two in-person interviews and one phone interview were conducted with individuals from three different not- for-profit agencies which provide prevention, intervention, and treatment services to persons primarily from southern Illinois communities. The purpose of the interviews was to assess whether or not research literature truly supported findings in the field. As a result, four common themes emerged from the literature reviews which were congruent with the field interviews: access to services, obstacles in completion, significance of gender specific groups and common referrals. All three agencies were non-profit, utilized American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria for assessment and treatment, and facilitated groups for people diagnosed with mental illness and substance abuse issues (MISA). Ms. Robin Klausing, M.S.W. was interviewed. Ms. Klausing has been employed for five months by Southern Illinois Regional Social Services (S.I.R.S.S.) as a full-time, substance abuse counselor within the Women’s Services program. Although her paid employment history in the area of substance abuse seems brief, Ms. Klausing also received one year of experience at S.I.R.R.S. during a master’s program internship. Ms. Klausing explains that S.I.R.S.S., located in Carbondale, Illinois, provides co-ed, Level I and Level II intensive outpatient treatment services. Level I groups are structured to address issues such as prevention, DUI’s, relapse prevention, MISA and Women’s Services; while Level II is clearly organized for intensive outpatient. Ms. Klausing facilitates the Women’s Group which meets weekly. Most in...