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Health conference to discuss addiction in women, babies

Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) - 4/16/2015

April 16--Substance abuse has always been a women's issue.

But for decades, the field of treatment didn't look at it that way, said licensed clinical social worker Twyla Wilson of Chapel Hill, N.C.

When support programs started in the 1930s, "women made coffee," Wilson said. "They drove men to meetings. They supported men. ... When treatment started being developed formally in the 1960s, it was pretty much developed by men and for men."

It wasn't until the 1970s that women started dealing with addiction issues and the underlying traumas that often contribute to them, said Wilson, who specializes in women's addiction treatment. Eventually, that perspective changed the way women are treated for addiction, she said.

Wilson will be the keynote speaker at the Knox County Health Department's State of Women's Health conference, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.April 24 at the downtown Crowne Plaza Hotel. The annual event this year will focus on substance abuse and neonatal abstinence syndrome; last year, nearly 1,000 infants were born addicted to drugs in Tennessee.

Addiction issues in women have deep roots, Wilson said. While traumatic experiences -- and childhoods -- are risk factors for both genders to develop substance abuse problems, she said, women statistically have "much higher levels of trauma in their lives."

For decades, the standard was to require women to get sober for a year before dealing with those issues, Wilson said.

"What happened is they were not able to use the drugs and alcohol blocking out some of those things, and they were flooded with memories of traumatic events," she said. "We were not giving them tools to handle that, so they relapsed. Then we'd blame them and say things like, 'I guess she just hasn't hit bottom yet,' or 'She's not ready to do the hard work of recovery.' "

But women's addiction treatment "pioneer" Dr. Stephanie Covington developed a model in which women's trauma is dealt with at the same time clients do recovery work.

Now, Wilson is among those trying to take her message -- that in order for sobriety to be maintained, trauma must be treated -- to physical and behavioral health providers. For that to happen, women have to have "a sense of safety," she said, and a sense of control over what and how much they deal with at one time.

Children have to be acknowledged as a big part of the recovery process, she said. They can motivate women to become sober, or they can be barriers if there aren't resources to care for the children of a woman who needs inpatient treatment.

Wilson said the model is now being applied to men who have had traumatic experiences.

"Our definition of 'recovery' has changed," she said. "It used to be taking away drugs and alcohol from somebody's life. Now it's development of a sense of wellness, wholeness and satisfaction in life. The focus has shifted from what's deleted to what's added."

Also speaking at the conference will be Knox County Health Department director Dr. Martha Buchanan and University of Tennessee Medical Center obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Craig Towers. An interactive panel discussion is planned.

"This is an intensely complicated issue that will take many different approaches to address, including widespread community engagement," Buchanan said. "Our hope is that attendees will leave with not only a better understanding of (addiction) and its broad impact on all income and education levels, but also new strategies for how we can work together to prevent it."

The conference is free and open to the public. Register at www.mybodymyfuture.com.

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(c)2015 the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.)

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