Treatment of substance use disorder and psychological trauma: outcomes of the women of worth program

ABSTRACT

Given the co-occurrence of substance use disorder (SUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder, existing SUD treatment programs are integrating the treatment of psychological trauma into their programming. The present study evaluated 120 women enrolled in the Women of Worth program, a gender-responsive treatment model, on several treatment outcomes. Substance use, depression, psychological trauma severity, and substance-related problems decreased significantly across time, only anxiety did not. Several study results also appear clinically meaningful. Overall, the results of the Women of Worth program may support the integration of psychological trauma treatment into existing SUD programs for women.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional trauma
• gender specific care
• substance abuse treatment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the leadership, mentorship, and friendship of Ms. Jane Witt (date of birth 1940, date of death 2018) and the community work of Dr. Therese Fellner. The Women of Worth program, in large part, is the result of Ms. Witt’s community activism and volunteerism, plus Dr. Fellner’s program development, fundraising, and grant writing efforts. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the resources of the Center for Urban Population Health, a partnership of Aurora Health Care/Aurora Research Institute, LLC, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the development, execution, and dissemination of this evaluation study.

Data availability statement

The TEDS-D, Concatenated 2006 to 2011 data are openly available in Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/, reference number 30122. Treatment Episode Data Set – Discharges (TEDS-D). (Concatenated, 2006 to 2011). Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2015-11-23.

Declaration statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Additional information

Funding

This evaluation study was supported by the Wisconsin Partnership Program, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.