Wine Country Times

Of the 13.3% of women who died last year due to drug abuse, 8.4% were Californians, according to a United Health Foundation study.

“The majority have residual poverty, homelessness, trauma, violence and it's gone on for, in many cases, generations,” Linda Carlson, executive director of Women's Recovery Services (WRS) in Santa Rosa, told Wine Country Times. “Making things worse is the drugs that are now available to women are terrifying. Women are overdosing like crazy because the drugs are so strong.”

WRS is among the 14,809 residential treatment centers in the U.S., according to Statista, but it’s unique in that it specializes in treating drug addiction in mothers and pregnant women.

“It’s important to pluck them out of the environment they've been in and place them in an environment that's stable, has structure, support, and education,” Carlson told Wine Country Times. “One of the biggest barriers is their children. By removing that barrier with housing for the mother and their child or children, it becomes more possible for them to seek treatment.”

In addition to providing pregnant women and mothers with a safe place to live and recover for four months, WRS also creates a case plan that includes helping them navigate state agencies that often require residential treatment, such as Child Protective Services, the court system or probation department.

“If they can't go back to their family because of drug and alcohol or violence, then we help them create a new family with our community,” Carlson said in an interview. “The important thing about gender-specific treatment is that women need to connect with and be part of a community.”

The program at WRS has operated since 1975.

"We serve about 100 women a year on campus," Carlson said. "Including their partners, children and families, WRS ends up serving 500 individuals a year. Some 78% of the women who complete the four-month program remain clean and sober.

“We reunited 101 children with healthy parents, which saves our county system millions of dollars because those children are not in foster care,” said Carlson. “We do encourage women who relapse to come back here. I have a mother of a small child who had one relapse after losing contact with her recovery community. She moved right back in to get sober again and we consider that a success.”

The biggest challenge currently is helping women stay clean and sober during the pandemic.

The California Department of Public Health reports 823,729 coronavirus cases and 16,120 fatalities as of Oct. 5.

"COVID has forced us to move to a virtual platform," Carlson said. "All of the child visits, court hearings, CPS meetings were moved to a virtual platform. We weren't set up for that but we are now. It was also really hard for our newly sober women in the aftercare program to stay clean because meetings were moved to a virtual platform and they lost connection with the other women. We’ve seen a higher rate of relapse, particularly in our transitional houses, due to COVID.”

Carlson added that for now, WRS has suspended its volunteer program due to the coronavirus, but people who would like to contribute can make donations or drop off a box of diapers on the front porch as well as water bottles, face masks, gloves and sanitizing wipes.