Women’s Residential Treatment Center (WRC)

Description

The Women’s Residential Center (WRC) provides trauma-informed integrated chemical dependency and mental health services in a residential setting to women. The WRC helps women and their families overcome a variety of challenges, rebuild their lives, and re-enter their communities as healthy, productive individuals.

The community of the Women’s Residential Center (WRC) welcomes you. We are truly glad to meet you and are excited about the opportunity we have to get to know you and work with you. We are already proud of you for managing to make it here. We know that the road you have traveled to get here has not been easy. You may be feeling scared, confused, angry, hopeless, or just plain exhausted. You may also be feeling curious, relieved, excited or hopeful. All of these feelings are natural considering what you have been through and what you may now be facing in your life. We encourage you to lean on staff and your peers for support as you get used to being here.

Program Details

Advocates

VOA programs offer an integrated array of services designed to address the needs of the whole person, family, and community. Just as a lifestyle of addiction and crime wreaks havoc in every area of an individual’s life, recovery from addiction requires that he/she address issues in every area of his/her life. In response to this reality, our trauma-informed program services are designed to provide Participants with a holistic, integrated set of strategies, skills, information, insights, and experiences that will equip them to accomplish multiple goals and to re-enter their communities successfully.

These include confronting the economic conditions that contribute to chemical dependency while also building insight and skills around a variety of issues such as social support, harmful thinking patterns, criminality, trauma, mental health, compassion for self, emotional regulation, mindfulness, domestic violence, sex work, relationships, parenting, nutrition, and exercise.

Individual Counseling

Participants have the opportunity to develop a relationship with a therapist who meets with them weekly and assists them in efforts to make changes in their lives by helping them set goals, address barriers, and measure their progress. As an adjunct to this therapy and in order to provide transition of care upon discharge, Participants may be referred to a community mental health provider.

Groups

The WRC offers a variety of evidence-based therapeutic groups that provide participants with opportunities to learn and process new information, gain personal insight, receive from and offer support to their peers, and practice new skills around issues such as addiction, mental health, mindfulness, healthy relationships, relapse prevention, sex work, trauma recovery, and others.

Case Management

Participants meet with a Counselor or Case Management Specialist who works with them to assess and plan for their long-term employment, housing, educational, physical and mental health, childcare and other needs and be supported through the referral process to appropriate services. They may also receive vocational training through participating in the VOA Oregon Employment Readiness Program.

Mental Health Services

Many VOA Oregon participants are challenged by trauma and other mental health issues in addition to their addiction issues. VOA Oregon ensures that they receive the care they need through providing counseling services with Qualified Mental Health Professionals (QMHPs) who understand the complex inter-connectedness of these issues, therapeutic groups in which participants learn skills that enable them to cope with these issues, and referral to community providers for ongoing care.

The services of a Licensed Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Naturopathic Doctor are available on-site to provide assessment, psychopharmacological therapy, and alternative treatments such as acupuncture. Medication management is provided by milieu staff.

Physical Wellness Services

Programs work with each Participant to enroll in health insurance and to obtain a primary care provider. VOA Oregon partners with the National College of Naturopathic Medicine to provide on-site health clinics that provide gender-specific health check-ups and follow-up care. Other partners also provide on-site acupuncture and chiropractic clinics, health and family planning education, and STI prevention and screening services.

Family Services

Mom’s with kids at the WRC work with a counselor who provides support with parenting issues, teaches parenting skills, and, provides help support with the CPS and court system. Parents Anonymous meetings are held on-site. The WRC also offers a weekly Family Group that provides education and support to families and significant others of participants.

Culturally Specific Services

Programs provide recreational activities, cultural celebrations, education, and groups that address the unique social and treatment needs of different ethnicity, sexual orientations, and spirituality. The WRC also partners with community providers that offer culturally-specific peer mentoring, recovery activities such as dances and retreats, and spiritual practice opportunities such as Native American sweats, ritual and church services.

Self-Help Meetings/Recovery Support

In order to give participants the opportunity to build the foundations of a clean and sober support system, programs provide daily transportation and on-site access to a variety of self-help meetings such as AA, NA, DD, and SMART. An integral part of a Participant’s treatment experience involves building a support network of clean and sober friends.

Recreation

Through attending varied recreational activities such as movies, camping, sporting events, theatre, ballet, OMSI, zoo, library, gym, writing workshops, and arts and crafts class, Participants receive the opportunity to experience the full range of rewarding experiences that are available in a clean and sober lifestyle. The men’s residential center participants and WRC women participate together in a recovery softball league.

Transitional Housing

Participants work with a case manager to develop a plan for housing and are strongly encouraged and supported with resources to move to clean and sober housing upon completion of inpatient services. VOA also operates 4 clean and sober transitional houses for women and their children.

Yoga/Mindfulness/Exercise

The WRC community meditates, walks, and practices Yoga together daily. With exercise and meditation, participants gain the ability to reconnect with and strengthen their bodies, cope with relapse and mental health triggers, and strengthen their ability to make healthy choices.

Alumni Association

Upon completion of the program, WRC participants are encouraged to come back to visit the program to receive support and meals as well as to provide support to current participants. They are invited to annual block parties, picnics, recreational events, and holiday celebrations and are honored annually at our Alumni Celebration.

FAQs

How do I ensure I am successful?

Together, participants and staff create a plan for transitioning to a successful life after treatment.

  • Participants work with a case management specialist to define goals for education, employment, and housing, and work towards making them happen.
  • Participants have the opportunity to practice job skills and learn how to search for, interview for, and obtain employment.
  • The WRC helps women eliminate barriers to education and employment and assists participants in securing a stable work or school situation.
  • Classes and support groups help participants and their families secure stable, drug-free housing.
  • Assistance is provided to address personal needs for participants and their families including:
    • Medical and chiropractic care
    • Ongoing mental health care
    • Dental care
    • Childcare
    • Clothing and toiletries
    • Household furnishings
What is treatment like?

A supportive environment nurtures strengths and empowers women to make healthy life choices.

  • A residential counselor team is available 24 hours a day to provide crisis counseling and support services.
  • Participants receive coaching and the opportunity to practice assertiveness and conflict resolution skills.
  • Space is available for mothers to bring their children age 6 and under to treatment with them.
  • Mindfulness meditation and yoga practice helps participants develop the self-awareness needed to be successful in recovery.
  • Participants develop a recovery support network through self-help meetings and by spending time with new friends in recovery.
  • Participants take part in recreational activities throughout Portland, including sporting events, dances, outdoor activities, and cultural celebrations.