Rehabilitation program fills critical treatment gap for minority women

Merging academics, personalized care, and rich research, Moving On to Recovery and Empowerment (MORE), a new academic and city partnership within the Stony Brook community, began last summer. According to Rita Nieves, director of Boston’s Bureau of Addiction Services, this is a new model—designed specifically to be comprehensive and sensitive to patients’ culture and gender—and will “increase access to treatment for an additional 70 African-American and Latina women per year” as they recover from addiction, domestic violence/trauma, and mental health problems.

A partnership between Northeastern’s Institute on Urban Health Research (IUHR) and the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services of the Boston Public Health Commission, MORE expands upon the continuum of traditional care with a high quality, specialized, and competent approach to reduce HIV infection and substance use and abuse.  Education, rapid testing, counseling, referrals for medical care, and case management are all vital components of MORE’s treatment process.

In keeping with Stony Brook’s commitment to community partnership and development rooted in education, research, and service, MORE is located near Northeastern’s campus. Northeastern graduate and undergraduate students can participate in co-ops, internships, and field practice learning experiences in pharmacy, public health, nursing, counseling psychology, and business, or as researchers. Hortensia Amaro, director of IUHR, said, "We are thrilled to continue our work in the areas of treatment, intervention, and education of underserved populations."

Forty-year-old Hilda Ayala, quoted in the Boston Globe in 2008, said her life changed dramatically after signing up for MORE. A former drug addict, Ayala had lost custody of her child, but said she regained focus after five months in the program and hoped to be reunited with her daughter. She credited her progress, and aspiration to earn a degree in social work, to MORE. “The women here have inspired me...I’d like to be able to help other women like they’ve helped me.”

According to the 2007 Health of Boston Report, the number of deaths related to substance abuse among women nearly doubled between 2005 and 2006, a fact Amaro attributed in part to “insufficient treatment opportunities” in the city.