Expanding the Working Together for Women Program: Enhancing Family-Based SUD Treatment and Recovery Support - The Caring Together Program’s (CTP) Working Together for Women Initiative at Drexel University is a trauma-informed, addiction and psychiatric recovery-focused treatment program for reentering women in Philadelphia. CTP will engage 330 additional women while in prison and provide addiction and psychiatric treatment, forensic peer support, comprehensive case management, and family reunification and psychoeducation services during reentry and beyond. Our target population is women 18 and over residing in Philadelphia who are within four months of release in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons (PDP). The 70% of women in the PDP with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) face multiple challenges upon reentry, including a lack of coordinated, family-based, gender-sensitive services including SUD treatment amidst a local drug supply increasingly contaminated with fentanyl and xylazine, leading to a record number (1,276) of fatal overdoses in Philadelphia in 2021. Resources to address these challenges have been limited due to now resolving COVID-19 restrictions in the forensic system and a lack of essential trained staff. CTP, the only gender-sensitive treatment program providing childcare for women with SUDs in Philadelphia, will expand its capacity and serve an additional 50 women in year 1 and 70 in years 2 to 5 with SUD to expand and enhance current services provided to women referred from outside the walls of the prison, e.g., through Probation and Parole. CTP and its partner, Sisters Returning Home, have observed the challenges of reentering women in finding a comprehensive program that meets their myriad needs and have identified five primary challenges to women’s successful reentry in SUD treatment enrollment and retention: 1) access to gender responsive treatment programs; 2) lack of case management to address reentry needs (e.g., housing, referral and linkage support, transportation); 3) difficulties in reunifying with family and children; 4) educational and vocational assistance; and 5) navigating the complex criminal justice system. The current proposal will expand our capacity by hiring dedicated staff (Case Manager, 2 Forensic Peer Specialists, and an Addiction Counselor) to meet with and support women prior to release at PPS and to provide enhanced recovery support throughout reentry, post-reentry treatment, and aftercare. The objectives of our expanded and enhanced reentry program are to increase: 1) the number of reentering women engaged in SUD treatment, including medication assisted treatment for Opioid Use Disorder; 2) reentering women’s access to evidence-based psychiatric treatment and linkage to medical treatment, and to show improvements in each; and 3) access to family reunification and psychoeducation supports. WTW’s specific goals in doing so are to positively impact: 1) recovery; 2) recidivism; 3) family engagement; and 4) psychiatric and physical health status. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected at intake, 6-months, and program discharge to evaluate attainment of these goals.
