Findings from moving on to recovery and empowerment (MORE): A community-based intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program for ethnically diverse, urban women

To address gaps in the literature, quasi-experimental study findings from a gender- and culturally-informed Intensive Substance Abuse Outpatient Treatment (IOT) program for low-income, urban women are presented. We compared outcomes for those who received treatment exposure goal (TEG) defined as >84 hours (>5.25 hours/week) vs. lower. Treatment followed an integrated substance abuse (SA), mental health (MH) and trauma model not previously implemented in IOT. Data were obtained from 401 women (consecutive admissions) via in-person independent structured interviews at program entry and 6 months post-baseline to assess changes in SA, MH, and other outcomes. Sample is 36% Latina, 29% Black and 67% younger than 40. Six-month follow-up rate was 80.5%. Those lost to follow-up compared to follow-up completers had significantly lower perceived stress; and higher drug addiction severity and substance use coping strategy. The analytic sample (N=293) were those eligible for and with complete follow-up data. Mixed effects models were employed to account for repeated measures within the same subject. Participants showed significant pre-post improvements in SA, MH, selected coping strategies, criminal activity, and employment status (all p<.05). Multivariate analyses controlling for confounders and within-subject correlations showed that those who received > 84 treatment hours (N=90, 30.7%) had greater improvements in days of MH problems (p=.02), trauma symptomatology (p<.01), perceived stress (p<.01), and general psychological distress (p=.04). No other differences by TEG group were found. We will discuss findings in the context of the documented need to improve treatment retention and outcomes among disenfranchised women; study limitations and implications for practice.