Women on Welfare More Likely to Find Jobs, Sobriety with Treatment Approach

A recent report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University shows that a new intensive case management approach to help drug-addicted women on poverty provides better outcomes for sobriety and employment than the current employment-first approach. The new approach views addiction as a chronic disease vs. a temporary problem.

CASASARD^SM – a program for drug-addicted mothers designed to get women engaged in treatment and employment services, help them become sober and successfully move to stable employment – compared its outcomes with the outcomes of  women receiving standard care.

Compared to the women receiving standard care, the women that received CASASARD’s^SM intensive case management approach received more time and services from their caseworkers; achieved rates 3 times as great of initiation, engagement and retention in outpatient substance abuse treatment; achieved significant reductions in substance use; were almost twice as likely to be completely abstinent at the 12 – 24 month follow-ups; and were more than twice as likely to be employed full-time at the end of 2 years.

These results could not only help addicted women get healthy and off welfare, but also reduce health and societal costs that plague our country. According to CASA, the economic benefit to society for each unemployed female welfare recipient with a substance use disorder that becomes substance-free and self-supporting is about $48,000 annually. That cost includes avoided welfare, health care and criminal justice costs, and a contribution to the economy in employment.

The CASA report also makes recommendations to states and the federal government that includes adopting a more intensive case management approach and supporting this approach through regulatory change and funding.

Clearly, a treatment first approach should be an option for any addicted woman on welfare if we want to help her live independently and contribute positively to society.

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CASASARD^SM: Intensive Case Management for Substance-Dependent Women Receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Famililies  CASA Press Release or  CASA White Paper

technorati tags: CASA, women, welfare, substance abuse, treatment, addiction, employment

Crossroads for Women’s Organizational Video

Take a look at Crossroads for Women’s new organizational video directed by Laki Vazakas. This new video tells the story of Crossroads for Women through the women who have walked through its doors.

Crossroads for Women is where you would send your mother, sister or daughter for outpatient or residential treatment for substance abuse and co-occurring mental health issues in a comfortable, safe environment so she can remember who she wanted to be. For more information or to receive a free DVD of the video, visit www.crossroadsforwomen.org or call 207.773.9931.

technorati tags: Crossroads for Women, substance abuse, mental health, treatment, Portland, Windham, Maine, video, addiction

New Studies Show Medication Assisted Treatment Effective for Alcohol, Opiate Addiction

Healthday reported that taking a regimen of prescribed medications is the most effective way to reduce withdrawal symptoms and urges to drink alcohol in those being treated for alcohol dependence. The conclusion came from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Combine study, a large-scale, multi-site, combined medication and behavioral treatment study.

Data was analyzed from 846 males and 380 females. Each participant was randomly assigned one of eight different treatment combinations involving two medications (naltrexone and acamprosate) used with two behavioral treatments — low-intensity medical management (MM) and moderately intensive combined behavioral intervention (CBI). The patients’ outcomes were compared after 16 weeks of treatment.

Results showed that those who consistently adhered to their medication regimen had better outcomes than those who were not as consistent, no matter what treatment combination they were assigned. The study also showed that the specialty alcohol treatment CBI was especially beneficial to those nonadherents that received a placebo, but CBI did not perform better than the more primary-care MM. Researchers concluded that that combing MM and naltrexone could benefit a large percentage of alcohol-dependent patients.

In other research news, an international study shows that the drug buprenorphine is twice as effective as naltrexone for treatment for heroin dependence. The two medications were tested on 126 Malaysian patients who had recently undergone a detoxification and counseling program. A placebo was also tested. Buprenorphine, also known as suboxone, was shown to be twice as effective than naltrexone and the placebo in terms of days of abstinence from heroin and a complete relapse to the narcotic.

The study suggested that buprenorphine should be placed alongside methadone as pharmacological treatments for helping addicts stay off heroin, but it did not favor naltrexone usage in treatment. Results of the study were published in The Lancet.

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From HealthDay: Prescribed Meds Still Best Treatment for Alcoholism
From All Health News: Study Shows Buprenorphine Works More Effectively In Heroin De-Addiction

technorati tags: medication assisted treatment, opiate, heroin, addiction, alcoholism, buprehorphine, naltrexone