Wine Country Times

A women's recovery program in Santa Rosa is using a unusual approach with a 120-day program to help women and their children battle alcohol, tobacco and chemical abuse addiction. 

Women's Recovery Services offers treatment services in a safe and supportive environment, which will help women and mothers break the cycle of their addiction, its About Page states. The program provides substance dependence education and a weekly process group. The organization also has a children's program.

"Women’s Recovery Services (WRS) provides a program of immediate relief from homelessness, addressing the root causes of homelessness and providing a path forward to end homelessness. WRS is the only licensed, residential, perinatal substance dependence facility in Sonoma County,"  Linda Carlson, executive director of Women's Recovery Services, said in an interview with Wine Country Times. "WRS interrupts the cycle of addiction, including its subsequent effect of poverty and homelessness."

The program gives treatment in a safe atmosphere and provides women and their children a supportive, nonjudgmental environment to live in and the organization provides meals. 

"[Women and their children] are shown into a clean, shared two bedroom-apartment providing privacy for themselves and up to two children," Carlson said. "Our closets are full of diapers, maternity clothes and shoes for moms and children. Only after we meet these basic needs can they attend to recovery."

Once the needs of the women are met, they can begin treatment. Each woman in the program is assigned a case manager, who will help them along their journey through the program and address issues that conflict with the successful completion of the program. 

"WRS provides gender-responsive treatment based on the distinctive characteristics of the female physiology and women’s roles, socialization, experiences and relative status, in the larger culture," Carson said. "We believe women with children have complex and special needs. Women encounter more barriers to treatment and are stigmatized more harshly. Women frequently have co-occurring disorders. Women-only programs that are non-threatening, safe and nurturing facilitate more rapid recovery and healing. The services of the community are an integral part of our programs."

The program, which uses evidence-based curriculum, combines behavioral health and wellness to teach the women to learn to live, shop and cook healthy meals. Women also receive parenting classes and lifestyle advice for a sustaining recovery. 

"Everything about our program is aimed at helping these young families learn how to sustain a lifestyle that models healthy living," Carson told Wine Country Times. "Our treatment philosophy is customized and based on the perspective that addiction and its attendant issues is a treatable, physical, emotional and spiritual illness. We treat each woman in our care as an individual with unique treatment issues and with dignity and respect. We utilize different tools and approaches to help our women achieve her goals. Our women centered treatment also addresses the needs of their children."

The program provides a 24/7 residence for women for up to 120 days in addition to transportation to and from any medical appointments for the women or their children. 

After four months in the program, women can transfer to one of Women's Recovery Services' transition homes and live there for up to two years, Carson said. After the program women also can enroll in an eight-month after program. 

Since 2016, the program has seen 138 women complete the residential treatment program, of which 68% were homeless before starting the program. One year after entering the program, 75% are not drug users and are alcohol-free, with 21% employed and another 19% pursing higher education, Carson said. The program also reunited 128 children with their mothers. 

"WRS does not just mitigate effects of addiction, but creates long term solutions," Carson said. "The work WRS does empowers families to be economically stable."