FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : April 24, 1997
Contact: Ellen Beth Levitt ([email protected])
Barbara Richardson ([email protected])
410-328-8919 PROBLEMS OF FEMALE ADDICTION TO BE HIGHLIGHTED AT CONFERENCE Women make up one-third of the 15.6 million Americans who are drug or alcohol dependent. But until recently, most addiction treatment has been tailored toward men, ignoring special needs and problems of women addicts.
In an effort to raise awareness of women's issues in addiction treatment and new services to help them, the University of Maryland Medical Center co-sponsored a free conference at the Baltimore Convention Center on April 24. The conference drew about 2,000 addiction treatment providers, including physicians, social workers, employee assistance professionals, counselors and therapists.
"Female abusers of alcohol or drugs have remained largely unidentified and untreated compared to their male counterparts," says Robert White, M.A., C.E.A.P., director of the Employee Assistance Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "Treatment programs often have a patient ratio of one woman to every 15 men."
White chaired the event, called the Tuerk Conference on Addiction Medicine. It is named after the late Isadore Tuerk, a psychiatrist who served as Maryland's Mental Health Commissioner for eight years and was a pioneer of group therapy techniques for alcoholics.
The keynote speaker of the conference was Sheila Blume, M.D., C.A.C., medical director for Alcoholism, Chemical Dependency and Compulsive Gambling programs at South Oaks Hospital in Amityville, New York, and a frequent lecturer on chemical dependency, especially as it relates to women and children. The topic of this year's conference gave addiction treatment professionals a rare opportunity to discuss some of the unique issues surrounding women's addiction. "The past decade has witnessed a sort of coming out of the closet for women's addiction," says Carl Hickey, M.S., C.E.A.P., coordinator of Access to Treatment, a Baltimore-based program that links individuals with private and public facilities willing to provide treatment for free or at a reduced cost.
"Until recently, alcoholism among women was largely an invisible issue. The negative stigma of chemically-dependent women has kept them from treatment, intervention and prevention," says Hickey.
Access to Treatment is a unique program that now plays a critical role in helping to connect alcohol and drug abusers to treatment facilities. Located at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Access to Treatment is a telephone referral service staffed during business hours that began operation in 1994. It helps individuals who are seeking treatment but cannot afford it. Twenty inpatient and outpatient facilities generously contribute their services to the program, making it possible to treat approximately 25 people each month. If purchased on the open market, the value of the donated or discounted treatment would exceed $2 million annually.
Hickey notes that at least half of his clients are women, many of whom have slipped through the traditional safety nets. "Everyone working in medicine today needs to be aware of the special issues surrounding women's addiction," says Hickey, who is on the Tuerk conference planning committee. "It will help ensure the problem is diagnosed much earlier," he adds. (The Access To Treatment Hotline Number is 410-328-8444).
Among the issues explored at the conference was the role of public policy and its effect on the availability of treatment resources for women, the psychiatric and medical issues surrounding female addiction and the implications for treatment, and the effect of maternal addiction on children. A panel discussion by recovering women and an open discussion among Maryland treatment providers was also featured.
Studies indicate that women substance abusers have many other problems in addition to their addiction. They are more likely than men to have such problems as past or present physical abuse, psychiatric symptoms such as depression, and a history of suicide attempts.
The conference, which started as a lecture series eight years ago, is being co-sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, EAPA--Chesapeake Chapter, Father Martin's Ashley, Inc., Green Spring, Maryland Medical Center Insurance Program, NCADD--MD, Pathways and pfizer/Roerig.
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