Cuidando a Mamá: A Pregnancy and Postpartum Program for Minority Women on the US-Mexico Border Region - Aliviane Inc. is the only residential service provider for Pregnant and Postpartum Women (PPW) in the Southwest Border High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). To address ongoing needs in the region, Aliviane Inc. is submitting a grant application to the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration FY 2023 Services Program for Residential Treatment for PPW.
The proposed project will focus on El Paso County, Texas which is located on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to Juarez, Mexico. The U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/elpasocountytexas) revealed that 20.1% of the county’s 865,657 residents live in poverty. The Census found that 82.9% of the residents are Hispanic or Latino. The Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings showed that 29% of the county’s residents reported poor or fair health compared to just 17% of the nation’s respondents (https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/explore-health-rankings/texas/el-paso?year=2022). The number of teen births per 10,000 female residents ages 15-19 in El Paso County was 37 which was significantly higher than the state (29) and nation (19). The rankings found that 30% of the county’s children lived in single-parent households and 23% of all children lived in poverty, a figure higher than the state (19%) and the nation (16%). The region includes a significant part of the HIDTA which has been identified as “the hub for illicit drug distribution and money laundering systems” (ONDCP, 1990).
In the region, PPW often have partners with substance abuse disorders (SUD). Frequently, the PPW have other minor children who depend on them for care. Many private and state programs have exclusion criteria preventing PPW from entering residential services simultaneously with their children or with all of their younger minor children. The male partners of the PPW frequently struggle to enter SUD residential care due to a lack of available resources.
The proposed project will expand residential treatment services for minority PPW at high risk for SUD, HIV/AIDS, trauma, and co-occurring mental disorders in El Paso County. It will focus on the expansion and enhancement of family centered and inclusive residential services for PPW in four impoverished communities including Clint, Fabens, San Elizario, and Socorro. The service area also includes colonias-unincorporated neighborhoods which lack access and infrastructure and have a high prevalence of health disparities related to SUD, HIV/AIDS, violence, and social determinants of health.
The planned initiative will address the shortage of family-based SUD treatment by expanding trauma-informed family centered and family inclusive residential services for PPW, children birth-17 years, the fathers of children, PPW’s significant others of any gender and, non-residential services to address SAMSHA’s project goals for the PPW initiative including reducing substance abuse, improving birth outcomes, improving mental and physical health outcomes for women and children, preventing perinatal and environmental effects of maternal and paternal substance use on infants and children, and strengthening and reuniting families while decreasing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse for all family members.
The purpose of this project is to reduce the often disastrous and ongoing impact of violence including structural, domestic, and sexual while addressing the substance use and co-occurring mental disorders for low income minority PPW , their minor children, the fathers of the children, the partners of the PPW, and non-residential family members in underserved high-risk US-Mexico border community through the expansion of comprehensive family centered residential substance use disorder treatment, prevention, and recovery.
