ABSTRACT
On the basis of the 9-site, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded Women, Co-Occurring Disorders, and Violence Study, this article discusses recommendations for implementing trauma-informed mental health, substance abuse, and other support services. These guidelines for best practices represent the consensus of a diverse trauma work group that drew on both cross-site and site-specific qualitative data.
Subject(s)
Alcoholism/rehabilitation , Health Plan Implementation , Mental Health Services , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/rehabilitation , Substance-Related Disorders/rehabilitation , Violence/psychology , Women's Health Services , Adult , Alcoholism/psychology , Child , Child Abuse/psychology , Child Abuse/rehabilitation , Child Abuse, Sexual/psychology , Child Abuse, Sexual/rehabilitation , Comorbidity , Cooperative Behavior , Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry) , Female , Humans , Needs Assessment , Patient Care Team , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Substance-Related Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
This article describes the "relational systems change" model developed by the Institute for Health and Recovery, and the implementation of the model in Massachusetts from 1998-2002 to facilitate systems change to support the delivery of integrated and trauma-informed services for women with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders and histories of violence and empirical evidence of resulting systems changes. The federally funded Women Embracing Life and Living (WELL) Project utilized relational strategies to facilitate systems change within and across 3 systems levels: local treatment providers, community (or region), and state. The WELL Project demonstrates that a highly collaborative, inclusive, and facilitated change process can effect services integration within agencies (intra-agency), strengthen integration within a regional network of agencies (interagency), and foster state support for services integration.
