Integration of Alcohol and Other Drug, Trauma and Mental Health Services

SUMMARY

The Franklin County Women's Research Project is a collaboration among the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium, the Franklin Medical Center, three Women's Resource Centers located across the county, and local consumer/survivor/recovering women (CSRs). This project is unusual in two ways: (1) it is a rural site, and (2) the project was designed, implemented and evaluated by CSRs. The program model integrates services at the person level and at the system level. The Women's Resource Centers are the focal points for the individual level services integration offering women support through their peers, including AA/NA meetings, trauma recovery groups using the Addiction and Trauma Recovery Model (ATRIUM), Peer Resource Advocates, writing, art, and body awareness programs, and a variety of opportunities. The guiding principle is that women heal when they find the resources within themselves to define their lives and engage in activities and work that is meaningful to them. These Centers work in conjunction with the formal treatment systems. Services integration is accomplished through the Services Integration Committee comprised of the mental health, AOD and domestic violence providers, the Community Coordination Council comprised of a wider network of service and support providers, and through the activities of the Trauma Liaison, an employee of Franklin Medical Center who chairs the committees and provides consultation on women with trauma histories.

Key Words:

• Alcoholism
• drug abuse
• women
• physical abuse
• sexual abuse
• services integration
• rural