Behavioral and Mental Health Services for Substance use disorders
The cost of substance use disorders is estimated at more than $400 billion a year in lost wages, property loss through crime, and medical costs – not to mention the emotional toll it takes on families and loved ones.
We offer Behavioral and Mental Health Services to the Community and we work to prevent and eliminate substance use disorders through residential and outpatient services, from prevention to treatment to long-term support.
OUR SPECIALIZATIONS
Prevention, Treatment, and Support
Research in Behavioral and Mental Health has established that prevention and treatment can work, but there is a gap between what is known about prevention and treatment and what is generally done. There is no such gap at Volunteers of America. Volunteers of America is a leader in the field and offers a continuum of supportive Behavioral and Mental Health services and residential treatment options to assist adolescents, adults, and their families in experiencing life without addiction and in becoming contributing members of their community.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is the use of medications, in combination with counseling and other therapeutic techniques, to provide a “whole-patient” approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Its success in treating opioid use disorders is well documented.
Intensive Outpatient Services
Individuals with addictions need to be able to access a wide variety of treatment models to meet the uniqueness of their addictions. One such treatment alternative approach is intensive outpatient treatment. Individuals engaged in this type of treatment have been assessed to be able to engage in up to daily, five-day-per-week treatment programs and remain living in a community setting.
Residential Treatment
Volunteers of America has long served populations with co-occurring substance use disorders and mental illness. High-quality inpatient drug and alcohol treatment services are provided for adults and youths referred to us by the criminal justice system.
Family-Focused Treatment
Volunteers of America have long recognized the need to develop gender-specific treatment models for women parenting children. Children are often wounded and need intensive therapy-type services to overcome the trauma and chaos that is most often involved in the parent’s substance use. Heroin deaths among women increased at more than twice the rate of men. Opioid use among women giving birth has almost quadrupled in a decade, while the incidence of neonatal drug withdrawal syndrome (NAS) grew almost five-fold in the same period.
Solutions that Work
When mothers and children receive residential treatment together, the maternal bond is maintained, children thrive, and mothers are motivated to achieve long-term recovery. This approach is also working for fathers raising children. The investment saves money by reducing neonatal intensive care days, reducing costs of drug overdoses, and eliminating the expense of more children in the child welfare system.
“My kids get a mother today.”
Volunteers of America helped Nicole defeat substance addiction and homelessness in order to return to school and find work. Today, she is the mother she wants her children to have.
“The Healing Families program has saved my life. I took individual therapy and was able to work through everything I had been through. I took parenting classes, substance abuse classes, and grief counseling, and now I’m part of a family coach program, preparing me to leave here.”
–Anita, Indianapolis, IN
Directory of Family-Based Residential Substance Use Disorder Treatment
The demand for residential treatment for parents with their children is expanding quickly. However, the number of licensed facilities for parents with children is growing slowly. With the support of the Annie. E. Casey Foundation, Volunteers of America, and Wilder Research produced the national directory of family-based residential treatment programs available here for free download.
We Provide Innovative, Results-Driven Behavioral and Mental Health Services
Our coordinated care model involves working closely with community provider-partners to address the full range of each person’s needs. Our long legacy of service shows that this is the only way to deeply and permanently transform lives. Implemented with compassion and respect, our integrated care approach enables us to effectively reach America’s “hardest to treat.”
Mental Illness
Our programs promise brighter futures to people with persistent serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and clinical depression, and less serious, non-chronic psychiatric issues treated in outpatient settings.
Substance Abuse
Our skilled and compassionate professionals help people emerge from alcoholism, drug addiction, chemical dependency, and abuse of prescription drugs.
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
We offer many effective types of support and watch with joy as people with intellectual or developmental disabilities become productive and fulfilled members of their families and communities – with much to offer all of us.
Jaime’s New Start
With the support and direction of the New Start staff, Jaime learns the coping mechanisms necessary to recover from substance misuse forever.
A mother of three, Jaime is now working toward her college degree and building a better life for herself and her children.
