Rehab For Women

Are There Women-Only Rehab Centers?

Women-only rehab centers exist to provide safe and supportive environments that some women may find more comfortable. This type of treatment is often referred to as “gender-responsive care” and takes into consideration how being a woman has affected her substance use and treatment preferences.

Rehab for women provides an approach that is based on the nature of the differences between women’s and men’s experiences regarding substance use and efforts to recover. Women-only rehab centers often include a focus on pregnancy and reproductive health.

Additionally, treatment programs that are not female-only can still provide options like women-only support groups or different days and times for accessing services to help better support their female patients.

What Types Of Treatment Programs Are Available For Women?

Drug and alcohol treatment programs are available at numerous levels of care, such as:

Screening and brief interviews are usually conducted to assess what type or level of care is most appropriate for women experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD). This aspect of treatment can start with a primary care doctor, a hospital emergency room, a trauma center, or other avenues. This initial step allows for women to be assessed regarding the severity of their substance use to identify and refer them to the appropriate level of treatment.

Benefits Of A Women’s Rehab Program

Women with SUDs have unique attributes and needs, and therefore, there are many benefits to women-only rehab programs. They can specifically treat the issues at the start of substance use, the trajectories of related disorders, and the physical and mental harms that women face. Care catered in this way is evidence-based as it follows the recommendations of the latest research showing that gender-responsive treatment improves outcomes.

Specific benefits of women-only rehab include:

Trauma-informed care that screens and assesses clients for any history of trauma.
Medical care for pregnant women that helps ensure the safety of both mother and newborn.
Integration of cultural competency regarding women’s experiences to boost engagement and retention in treatment.
A woman-focused approach to dual diagnosis of SUDs and mental health disorders that have different rates of prevalence in women, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and eating disorders.
Person-centered treatment that incorporates the importance of family and motherhood responsibilities and concerns, like childcare.
Provision of a safe environment that focuses on relevant relationship and family issues.

These benefits allow for gender-responsive care, which has been shown not only to lessen barriers toward women getting SUD treatment but also to provide specially tailored approaches that address women’s needs as well as improve their treatment outcomes.

How Women’s Rehab Makes a Difference

Women’s rehab programs make a difference by addressing the ongoing concern of women being less likely than men to enter treatment. They address disparities in treatment for women by addressing the unique social, psychological, and societal reasons women are less likely to initiate care. Since over half of women wanting treatment for a SUD have mental health concerns as well as a history of trauma, care specifically tailored to women allows for a safe space that can address their complex needs and provide integrated services.

Women’s rehab centers also make a difference by emphasizing pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting needs, sometimes providing childcare or inpatient facilities that house families and not just clients with addiction. They also offer a women-centered approach that recognizes the importance of addressing needs related to legal problems, transportation, and challenges with housing stability.

Finally, these programs are not only created by considering barriers and challenges women have faced in the past, but they also take a strengths-based treatment approach that helps women embrace their competencies and aspirations to drive change and build better futures.

Support For Domestic Violence Survivors In Women’s Rehab

Treatment professionals should not just screen women for substance use but also for health and mental health concerns, including history regarding current or past domestic violence. The initial assessment allows workers to build rapport with female clients to help build trust and safety. When domestic violence is a concern, these aspects help promote continued engagement in services. Topics surrounding trauma, such as domestic violence, should be fully assessed, as women with a substance use disorder have higher rates of trauma histories. This is even more so true for transgender women.

According to research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 38% of treatment facilities offer services regarding domestic violence. SAMHSA urges substance use treatment centers providing help for domestic violence survivors to engage in treatment planning that focuses on safety and covers the following areas:

What to do in case of emergency
How to stay safe at home
How to keep children safe at all times
Ways to stay protected outside the home
Utilizing the law to maintain safety
Details about criminal proceedings
The interconnection between domestic violence and issues regarding substance use and mental health

In addition, concerns related to domestic violence should be attended to throughout the treatment process, as clients going through this will not always be ready to disclose their history of abuse at the start of treatment. The full scope of a domestic violence situation is unlikely to be evident at the beginning stages of substance-related treatment.

How Does Substance Abuse Affect Women Differently?

There are differences in the way women experience substance abuse, the development of their SUDs, trajectories, and related physical and mental health consequences, as well as outcomes of participating in treatment.

A 2022 study funded by the Research in Addiction Medicine Fellowship and the International Collaborative Addiction Medicine Research Fellowship indicates numerous differences:

Women’s use of drugs and alcohol begins at an older age.
They progress more quickly from starting substance use to the development of a diagnosable SUD.
Research has repeatedly shown that women suffer from greater physical, mental, and social harm as a result of drug and alcohol use.
Compared to men, women experience higher rates of infections when they are taking drugs via injection.

Women-only rehab programs align their approaches to these and other factors tied to women and substance use.

Featured Centers Offering Women-Only Treatment

Statistics On Female Drug Use

Worldwide, approximately a third of people who have a SUD are women, but they account for just a fifth of people who seek related treatment. Although statistically, men historically have had higher rates of drug and alcohol use, the gender gap between women and men is decreasing when it comes to SUDs. In the past decade, rates of the following have been increasing more quickly in women:

In response to the narrowing of this gender gap, there has been an elevated need for approaches that focus specifically on helping women overcome addiction.

Get Help Today

There are many options for women-only treatment for substance use disorders. If you or a loved one may benefit from these services, contact a treatment provider today to explore your rehab options, or explore our rehab directory to find treatment centers near you.