Mujeres Viviendo en Balance

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Substance abuse among Latino adults is often overlooked as a national public health concern. In response to this issue and a request from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop, modify, and test new or existin g group therapy approaches, particularly for racial or ethnic minority populations, Social Solutions International, Inc. proposes to develop and evaluate Mujeres Viviendo en Balance (MVEB). The purpose of this Phase I SBIR proposal is to develop MVEB, an innovative, comprehensive, psychoeducational program for counselors to use with Spanish-speaking women who meet the diagnostic criteria for abuse/dependence on alcohol or illicit drugs. The proposed product will consist of a facilitator's guide and treatme nt engagement materials. The facilitator's guide will include an introduction to the program, skills training, motivational enhancement techniques, and counselor and participant materials for 12 sessions. It will be designed for counselors and other profes sionals (therapists, psychologists, case managers) to use for substance abuse services in diverse treatment settings. The facilitator's guide is a 12-step manualized treatment based on CBT and MET. The sessions will be designed to examine culturally and ge nder relevant mores, such as machismo, respecto, and others and cover topics relevant to women, such as HIV risk. Additionally, the program will include participant materials for use in the session and as homework. MVEB has the following objectives: (1) To serve as a research-based, empirically tested psychoeducational curriculum that is effective and appropriate for use with Spanish-speaking women with problems related to substance abuse and (2) To provide treatment, training materials, and outreach materi als for addiction professionals (counselors, social workers, therapists, psychologists, case managers) that are easy to use and integrate into existing community residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment facilities. MVEB will be the only Spanish -language manualized, comprehensive, psychoeducational curriculum tailored to Latino female audiences. Given the growing proportion of U.S. residents who speak only Spanish (or who are most comfortable speaking Spanish), the proposed MVEB package will fill an expanding need among substance abuse counselors who work exclusively with Spanish-speaking women and will ultimately serve an important role in the efforts to close the service gap and align program offerings between English- and non-English-speaking c lientele. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In 2003, approximately 6.5 million women aged 18 or older met criteria for abuse of or dependence on alcohol or an illicit drug. Of these women 4.4 percent were Latina. Only 10 percent of Latinos needing treatment for an illicit drug problem receive it. Further, few treatment centers offer programs specifically designed for women (Gerolamo, 2004; Brady and Ashley, 2005) and even fewer provide approaches designed specifically for Latinos (Wells, Klap, Koike and Sherbourne, 2001). Research has suggested that cultural and gender factors should be considered when developing appropriate substance abuse treatment programs (Trepper, Nelson, McCollum and McAvoy, 1997; Santiago-Rivera, 2003; Gerolamo, 2004; Brady and Ashley, 2005).