Wine Country Times

Women’s Recovery Services (WRS) soon could be providing treatment to women addicts with COVID-19 who are pregnant or are already parents thanks to the assistance of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.

“We expect that getting the staff and residents vaccinated will help ease concerns and allow us to continue to meet these challenges and serve those in need,” Debby Young, dependency drug court coordinator and perinatal placement specialist with Sonoma County’s Behavioral Health AODS/SUD, said.

There were 11,418,507 people inoculated statewide against the coronavirus as of March 14, which is 20.3% of California’s population, according to the Los Angeles Times vaccination dashboard.

"There are encouraging improvements in recent weeks in terms of access to vaccines and continued testing,” Young told Wine Country Times. “We hope and expect this positive trend to continue so that over time we can address providing residential treatment for someone with COVID-19.”

While Sonoma County Department of Health Services works closely with Women’s Recovery Services to place pregnant and/or parenting clients into substance abuse treatment, WRS houses them and creates a case plan to help the women navigate state agencies like Child Protective Services, the court system, or the probation department.

“The challenges due to COVID have been similar to other organizations and communities, including accessibility to testing, vaccinations, and PPE for staff and clients,” Young said in an interview.

Although there are 3,526,335 confirmed coronavirus cases statewide that have resulted in 55,235 deaths as of March 14, according to California's COVID dashboard, Gov. Gavin Newsom has begun to lift restrictions on the economy. As a result, Young said, WRS has provided increased in-person visitation with the children of mothers in treatment.

“Sonoma County, like counties across California, is learning as we go in terms of meeting the challenges of a global pandemic,” she said.

As previously reported in Wine Country Times, the biggest current challenge is helping women stay clean and sober during the pandemic

“There is an increase in both relapses and overdoses,” Young said. “This may be due to the lack of in-person contact and isolation, and the importance of community in recovery from substance abuse/addiction.”