Project name: Georgia Strong – Standing Together in Recovery to Overcome and Nurture Growth
Population to be served: The target population is women 18 years of age or older with substance use disorders, including opioid use disorders, who are pregnant and/or parenting children birth to age 13 and who are at high risk for setbacks (relapse), are pregnant, have Child Protective Services or Family Support Involvement, criminal justice involvement, and/or mental health challenges.
Project summary: DBHDD will enhance existing services for pregnant and postpartum women living with a substance use disorder (including opioid use disorders) in need of supportive family based services, address the continuum of care and identify gaps in services including services provided for women in non-residential based settings and to promote a coordinated, effective and efficient treatment system in Georgia that encourages and supports new approaches and models of service delivery. Gaps will be addressed in the continuum of care by extending services to identified family members, partners/spouses, and sibling(s) of the identified client in a community based setting for optimal retention of the family unit.
Strategies/interventions: Georgia will implement the project with two current DBHDD Women’s Treatment and Recovery Services providers: Highland Rivers Health Community Service Board and Hope House of Augusta. Highland Rivers will target Bartow and Floyd Counties. Hope House will provide services in Burke, Columbia, and Richmond Counties. These programs will utilize family centered evidence based practices, outreach, engagement, screening and assessment, linkage to wrap-around services to include transportation, trauma focused and informed care, peer recovery services, case management, and mental health care to rebuild the family unit and minimize the impact of the disease of addiction on the family. Through serving pregnant and postpartum women and their families, this program aims to maintain the number of healthy, drug-free births with increased awareness of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increase retention rates, increase successful engagement and completion of treatment to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, provide education on the many pathways to recovery, and access to life-saving medications, including medication assisted treatment options.
Goals and Objectives:
Goal: The purpose of the Georgia Strong project is to enhance existing services for pregnant and postpartum women living with a substance use disorder (including opioid use disorders) that are in need of supportive family based services, address the continuum of care and identify gaps in services including services provided for women in non-residential based settings by two Women’s Treatment and Recovery Services providers and promote a coordinated, effective and efficient treatment system in Georgia that encourages and supports new approaches and models of service delivery.
Objective 1: By 9/29/2020, provide outreach and engagement, wrap-around recovery support services, family-focused family programs to support family strengthening and reunification, clinically appropriate evidence-based practices, trauma-informed behavioral health care, and case management for 136 pregnant and postpartum women a year.
Objective 2: By 9/29/2020, provide developmentally appropriate assessment, age appropriate, evidence-based family focused interventions (or use services?) and referral/linkage to needed services (e.g., pediatric health care, Head Start, Babies Can't Wait, Families First) annually for an estimated 136 children of pregnant and postpartum women participating in the Georgia Strong PPW-PLC project.
Objective 3: By 9/29/2020, provide substance use screening services and referral to substance use treatment services as well as Strengthening Families and other family focused evidence-based services annually for an estimated 80 other family members of pregnant and post