New Directions for Women hosted the 5th Annual Community Open House on August 11th on our beautiful three acre campus. Almost two hundred guests joined us, including staff and residents from local treatment centers, alumni, fans of Repeat Boutique, and neighbors. Everybody enjoyed free chair massages from One Source Wellness, fabulous tunes from Celebrations in Sound, as well as informational tours of our chemical dependency treatment facility given by our patients. We had a caricature artist and photographer to ensure that memories of the afternoon will last. Children were welcome at the Open House, and they had tons of fun getting their faces painted by Joyla the Clown, and planting mini-flower pots with guests from a local Girl Scout Troop. Through our opportunity drawings and Repeat Boutique sales, we earned almost $1,400 for partial scholarships for the women that we serve.

Congratulations to the following guests for winning our opportunity drawings!
Brand new HP Netbook – Darlene Quinn
Pass for two on a Hornblower Cruise – Mary Duffy
Dinner for two at the Five Crowns Restaurant – Laura Gatlin
An hour massage from Dynamic Touch Massage Therapy – Doreen Garcia
10 Class Series of Yoga at Soul at Home – Geraldine Schlutz
A Del Taco Gift Pack – Sally Frei

In these challenging economic times, New Directions for Women realizes it is more important than ever to continue the fight against addiction. The loss of a job can often trigger a need to escape reality through alcohol and other drugs. The 4th Annual Addiction Treatment Centers & Professionals Consortium of California (ATCPCC), which occurred in Santa Barbara, California from July 28 – 30, 2010, was meant to create a forum in which addiction experts could share resources and knowledge at a time when it’s needed most. This event gave addiction experts from about 50 premier addiction treatment centers throughout the U.S. an opportunity to meet established practitioners, discuss trends in the industry, and to network and better serve clients through best practices with an emphasis on excellence. ATCPCC allowed those in the addiction treatment field to gather and discuss their trade in a forum that allows for networking, learning and improving the addiction treatment profession. Many pertinent and upcoming issues were discussed, and we believe everyone returned home with wonderful memories of summer relaxation, as well as many new relationships! New Directions for Women is strongly committed to the mission of treating chemically dependent women and is a proud host of ATCPCC. We thank the almost one hundred attendees who shared their time and talent with us, and look forward to releasing information about ATCPCC 2011 shortly.

Volunteers gather for a group photo after a hard day's work!

On Wednesday July 28, 2010, New Directions for Women was honored to host 20 volunteers from PIMCO Partners. PIMCO employees contributed their time and energy in an important beautification project. They expertly painted all the fences on our three acre campus, making our facility even more cheerful and bright.

“We thoroughly enjoyed volunteering at New Directions for Women and we appreciated working to beautify the campus. Volunteering gives us an opportunity to make an impact in our very own community. We look forward to returning as volunteers to NDFW in the near future.” Says Sarah Middleton, Manager of Employee Activities and Community Outreach for PIMCO.

Many of our patients worked alongside volunteers at the event, which is particularly rewarding. The 12^th step of Alcoholics Anonymous teaches us to give back, and this is a prime example of the 12^th step at work. For our women to stand beside volunteers and improve the facility that has become like a second home to them and so many other women in our four decades of existence is a wonderful lesson in giving back. We are so grateful to all the volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to visit our campus and beautify our facility.

Last week Becky Flood, New Directions for Women’s Executive Director and CEO, was in New York City with Interventionist Brad Lamm, taping an episode of the Dr. Oz television show.

On this episode, Brad performs an intervention with a female patient with young children and New Directions for Women is offered for treatment services.

We’re proud the  Dr. Oz show recognizes New Directions as a leader in the addiction industry, particularly as a leading facility for helping women with children.  Because of our expertise in gender specific treatment and our unique ability to have a patient’s children live on our peaceful campus during treatment, New Directions is an excellent choice for women with children.

You can watch the video here.

By Sally Frei, Board Member, New Directions for Women Inc.

To help someone recover from addiction you have to have a passion and love for helping people and a foundational understanding of 12 steps.  I believe this to be true about New Directions for Women. Founded in 1977 New Directions paved a hard road of struggles and setbacks through the years but it has overcome these challenges and has retained the mission and vision of the original founders Pamela Wilder, Muriel Zink, and Marion Schoen.

In 1977 Pamela Wilder was a recovering alcoholic and a member of the Junior League of Orange County. With a lack of affordable, accessible and local treatment programs for women in Orange County Wilder saw a need and had a vision to help others like her find recovery and stay sober. She publicly and courageously asked the Junior League of Orange County for help and support in creating this program and was joined by Muriel Zink and Marion Schoen. Together these three innovators created the legacy that is New Directions for Women today.

At inception the research and theory behind addiction treatment hadn’t focused on women and hadn’t given concrete methods of care. With no formal training these women seemingly were flying blind but they intuitively knew the course to take in giving women the hope and treatment necessary to ensure recovery from addiction.

Through the 1980s, New Directions offered a peer-oriented social model of addiction recovery services.  As treatment models evolved managed care came to be the prominent form of health insurance and treatment in the 1990s and negatively changed the definition of how addiction should be treated.   During this time managed care insurance companies believed that treatment programs with lengths of 14 days or less were substantial enough to “cure” people of their addictions. With these treatment programs not being long enough to break the cycle of addiction many people continued to suffer with their disease and a great number of programs were adversely affected.  During this time as patient numbers decreased in treatment centers across the U.S. many centers fell apart and were forced to close.  New Directions however was able to weather the storm and survive, during this time there were seven executive directors in seven years.  With so much turmoil New Directions was being held together by the commitment of the board of directors, volunteers, and alumni helping them stay true to their vision and mission.

In recent years New Directions has emerged with a greater strategic focus and brought clinical expertise to their mission.  In 2004 Becky Flood, MHS LCADC, NCACII, BRI II was hired as Executive Director and CEO. Flood came to New Directions with an energizing spirit and team of experts.  Flood instituted the development of an executive management team with a focus on marketing and development to broaden New Directions’ donor base.  

Flood helped to bring Early Childhood Development Services in 2005 to the New Directions campus as well as becoming accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) in 2007.

The current staff at New Directions has a strong clinical background and performs a variety of duties all focused around helping patients through their treatment and moving forward in their recovery. Quality Improvement Officer Maurice Wilson PhD CADC II who joined New Directions in 2004 has over thirty years of experience in addiction treatment and research and has been instrumental in the recovery of patients. Virginia Mendiola ensures New Directions front office runs efficiently, Eyal Avidror is the executive chef at New Directions and ensures patients are eating properly while in their treatment program and Ann Premazon has worked diligently on the redesign of the New Directions website and whose family has been positively impacted by New Directions services.

The New Directions Board of Directors have also continued the passion and love for helping people in the fight against addiction and bring a variety of skill sets and depth of knowledge to the organization.  The current board is comprised of founding board members and long time supporter such as Faith Strong who has lived a life devoted to breaking the cycle of addiction. Faith brought Alcoholics Anonymous to the Soviet Union in 1986 and has been a continual contributor to New Directions for over thirty years with gifts totaling more than $3 Million dollars. The board of directors is also comprised of legacies such as Jim Wilder the son of Founder Pamela Wilder and other influential board members such as Dan Carracino, Karen Lutz, Carol Pickup and Judy Elmore who are all passionate about recovery and have deep roots in both supporting New Directions and the Orange County community at large.  In addition to the Board of Directors, New Directions Clinical Committee has addiction experts and devoted supporters such as Ruth Stafford, PhD who lends her experience as a psychology professor at UCI.

               The history of helping women overcome chemical addiction remains the mission at New Directions for Women, with more than thirty years of service we look forward to another thirty years of recovery and sobriety.

More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. There are currently over 5 million alcohol-dependent women in the United States alone—and the issue is only increasing. Chronic alcohol abuse takes a heavier toll on women than on men. Women get more impaired than men do after drinking the same amount of alcohol, even when differences in weight are taken into account. This means women are at greater risk than men for serious medical consequences of alcohol use, such as liver, brain, heart damage and cancer.

Alcohol abuse can be defined as, “drinking despite alcohol-related physical, social, psychological, or occupational problems,” or drinking in dangerous situations, such as while driving. There are many factors that can contribute to alcohol abuse in women such as stress, nervousness, insecurity, and self doubt. Many women use alcohol as a crutch, or a way to self medicate and forget about tough emotional problems. But dependency on alcohol is not the answer to life’s complications.

Answering the following questions can help you find out if you or a loved one has a drinking problem:

• Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?
• Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?
• Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
• Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid or a hangover?

  Here are a few key warning signs that recognized early, can help prevent major problems later on.

• Neglecting other activities, such as social, professional, or recreational, due to drinking.
• Impaired control—Ongoing, unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control alcohol consumption.
• High tolerance, or the need to drink more to feel the effects of alcohol
• Excessive amounts of time and effort spent on making sure alcohol is readily available.

Drinking should not be taken lightly—it is a serious issue that can greatly alter your quality of life and even lead to death. New Directions for Women can help you are a loved one overcome alcohol dependency and get your life back on track.

It’s estimated that 50 million Americans live with chronic pain. Many of these people use powerfully addictive opiates such as morphine oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone to  cope with the pain. While able to stop the pain these drugs are also highly addictive.  In addition to legitimate uses they are commonly used among recreational drug abusers to get high. The 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated 4.7 million Americans used prescription drugs nonmedically. What’s more alarming is that prescription drug abuse causes the majority of 26,000 fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. each year.

As these drugs are highly addictive it’s easy for people who are legitimately using the drugs to become hooked and need them for more than just pain relief and can be convinced of their necessity after the pain has subsided. It can be hard to decipher who is properly using these drugs and who has turned their use into an addiction.

Here are a few signs that can help you determine if you or a loved one is addicted to prescription pain killers:

1. Increase in Usage of the Drug: As people take drugs over time their body will grow a tolerance to the drugs. People often self-medicate and increase their dosage to get relief without consulting a doctor.
2. Change in Personality and Hygiene:  A person’s disposition can change from an increased need for drugs. In some cases daily tasks and responsibilities and hygiene habits can take a backseat to a need for their drugs.
3. Social Withdrawal: People with dependency problems may withdrawl from family, friends and social events.
4. Ongoing Use of Drugs: People who become addicted to pain killers will continue to use the drugs after their medical conditions have improved. Often these people will speak of feeling pain and will claim to need to be on the medication a little longer to feel better. 
5. Defensiveness: People who are confronted about a drug dependency can become very defensive and angry about questions regarding their drug usage.

New Directions for Women helps women through problems with chemical addiction. If you or a loved one is struggling with an addiction to prescription drugs through recreational or prescribed use please contact 1-800-93-WOMEN to speak with a representative.

Methamphetamines have been gaining popularity over the last decade in America as a drug of choice for both men and women. According to the 2008 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) Survey on Meth 850,000 American’s over the age of 12 have abused meth at least once in the year prior to the survey and users are almost split in half between men and women. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) meth users are almost split in half with female users totaling 45 percent and male users totaling 55 percent. More commonly known as meth, crystal meth, or speed, meth is a dangerous drug that has legitimate pharmaceutical applications but use can quickly turn to abuse-wrecking havoc on a person’s life. Women in particular are using meth more and more either to deal with pressures at work or to lose weight and control symptoms of depression. Addiction treatment centers such as New Directions for Women have seen a substantial increase in the number of new patients addicted to this dangerous drug.

Meth affects the brain’s central nervous system by increasing the levels of dopamine, which give people feelings of pleasure. Meth also affects users by allowing them to stay awake longer and suppresses their appetites making it a drug of choice for young women looking to lose weight. While it does curb the user’s appetite, meth is a dangerous method of weight loss as it can become a roller coaster of ups and downs for the user. While on meth users generally experience dramatic weight loss.  If the person stops using the drug, the weight is often regained very quickly and the person often commences using meth again, which turns into a vicious cycle.

Recognizing the signs of meth use early can help ensure a full recovery. Here are a few common symptoms characteristic of meth use.

Behavior Symptoms:

• Hyper-alertness
• Jittery or anxious behavior
• Extremely intense focus or concentration

Physical Symptoms:

• Rapid weight loss (without change in diet or exercise)
•  A decreased interest in physical appearance and deterioration of health visible in fingernails, skin, teeth and hair. 

  These are just a few symptoms of the onset of meth addiction. As the user gets more and more dependent on meth, they will care less and less about their appearances, relationships and surroundings and become solely focused on getting more drugs.

 Confronting loved ones about their addiction can be tough and sometimes dangerous; New Directions for Women can help connect you with a board registered interventionist to stop the destruction and despair that is created by meth addiction.

By Rebecca Flood, MHS, LCADC, NCACII, BRI II,
Executive Director/CEO New Directions for Women

Addiction strikes people regardless of economic, financial, or social backgrounds; addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer.  Despite its indiscriminate nature, studies show women are far less likely than men to seek treatment.  According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2007 almost 7 million women were found to need addiction treatment services.  Of those women almost 6.5 million women or 93.7 percent felt they didn’t need treatment with 6.3 percent believing they did need treatment but only 1.7 percent or 118,000 women pursued treatment.  Numbers like this are alarming and show how chemical addiction in women is truly an epidemic.  In the U.S. our government spends millions protecting our borders, airports and overall infrastructure while we’ve got what I believe to be one of the largest domestic terrorists running rampant throughout the country and that’s alcohol and other drugs.  

I believe chemical addiction in women has grown rampant due to the lack of focus on women’s needs in addressing addiction. Over the last half century we have seen the birth and evolution of addiction therapy from the Minnesota Model of 1949 which focused on 28 day treatment programs for men, to treatment programs today that last last between 90 and 120 days and are gender separate.

When addiction treatment began 60 years ago, the conventional wisdom was that people were addicted to drugs and alcohol for different reasons.  There were no initial studies on how the disease was affected by gender differences or how gender differences impacted treatment and recovery.  Today we realize drug and alcohol addiction is part of the same disorder. Over the past twenty years research has shown that both men and women have different responses to both addiction and treatment. That’s why research shows such a higher success rate in gender separate treatment programs.  These types of pioneer programs began sprouting up in later half of the 20th century and were not seen as needed or important until the 1990s and were notably successful for recognizing:

• Men and women have different physical and emotional responses to chemical dependency
• Men and women have different metabolic rates, and require far different needs and approaches to the recovery process.  
• Women, especially mothers, suffer from far more guilt and emotional stress than male addicts who have children and are often unable to care for themselves and don’t seek help for their addiction. Other exterior forces can impact the recovery process much more acutely for women than men, including:
• Media attention about HIV exposed infants being abandoned by mothers
• Welfare to work reform movement
• High profile child welfare cases involving substance abuse

Over the last 20 years we have seen a great deal of success over addiction with gender separate treatment programs for women. Women do better in gender separate addiction recovery programs because they are often able to focus on issues that will ultimately affect their recovery. Many women also enter treatment with a variety of issues that have yet to be dealt with but will ultimately affect their ability to stay sober. Gender separate treatment allows for women to address these issues in a safe and nurturing environment.  I have seen gender separate treatment work for women time and time again.  Thirty years ago when I entered the field, to today as a residential treatment facility administrator, I have found gender separate treatment to be a determining factor in keeping both men and women sober and clean.  

While tremendous progress has been made in the field over the past 20 years and we have bridged many gaps in treatment, there continues to be opportunity for continued growth because there are so many addicts seeking or needing help in the fight against their disease. 

As the Vice President of Treatment Services at Seabrook House, I was the primary designer and implementer of MatriArk which was one of 14 federally funded trial comprehensive gender separate addiction treatment program for women in America.  MatriArk began in 1993 and the program was designed to help women through the recovery process in a safe, non-threatening environment.

This and the other demonstration programs paved the way for countless other treatment facilities to create their own gender separate treatment programs.  

          In the history of addiction treatment for women one of the most courageous feats to me is the innovation shown by the founders of New Directions for Women, Pam Wilder, Muriel Zink and Marion Schoen. These women didn’t have any special funding or research telling them that gender separate treatment worked, they just intuitively knew in their hearts that women needed a gender separate environment to achieve long term, responsible recovery. 

          Today New Directions for Women has continued the spirit of the founders and built upon its basics by continuing to use research and evidence based best practices in all their services. The following are the program components of what we use at New Directions:

• ·A holistic program dealing with the entire family system and all its “roles”
• ·Family support: Women in treatment need support from their family and continued support outside of the treatment facility
• ·Traceable results, all parts must be documented and followed over time to indicate the outcome of their use
• ·Eclectic-multidisciplinary approaches being used effectively
• ·12-Step foundation
• ·Cogitative Behavior Therapy
• ·Seeking Safety
• ·Matrix Model
• ·A Variety of Experiential Therapies such as:
  • Equine Therapy
  • Psycho Drama
  • Kayaking
  • Ropes Course
  • Healing Arts
  • Japanese Meditation

          Since the beginning of gender separate programs like MatriArk, we have seen positive results with women in recovery due to being treated in gender separate addiction programs at New Directions.  Between June 2006 and July 2007 87 patients were released from New Directions of which 52 patients or 60 percent answered a follow-up survey. In this survey we found that in the first six months after discharge there was an 87 percent reduction in the proportion of patients who used or abused alcohol, a 72 percent reduction in the use of methamphetamine and a 78 percent reduction in the use of marijuana.  In this same group we also saw 91 percent fewer patients that experienced an increase in stress from alcohol or drug use and 88 percent fewer patients said they were forced to give up routine activities because of alcohol or drug use. In addition to the decline in drug use or affect on an alumni’s daily life we’ve also seen an increase in their well being. Between admission and six months after discharge from New Directions 70 percent or more of these patients rated their physical and emotional health as “very good” or “excellent.”

          As more and more patients continue to thrive in the model of gender separate treatment and therapy, it’s our hope that more treatment centers adopt this style of recovery thus helping women suffering from an addictive disorder and giving them hope for long term sustained recovery.

A Fisher of Men

 Maurice Wilson’s doctors can perhaps be forgiven if they thought that the medical prognosis they recently delivered to him would be received with sadness and grief.  Little did they realize that the prospect of transition, at least for Maurice, had provided him with yet another opportunity to celebrate life. 

 “I have done as much as I can, for as many as I can, for as long as I can, the best that I can,” Maurice recently reflected with the basso profundo that is his voice, and the radiant smile that has warmed the coldest of hearts.    “Who can have a more blessed life.  And, in my darling Becky, I have had the love of a lifetime!”

 And what a life of love and service Maurice has lived.  Indeed, when Jesus beckoned to Simon and Andrew to “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he must have been anticipating the life of Maurice Wilson.    Because Maurice’s  life has been one devoted to gathering, and uplifting, men and women with the irresistible lure of his living example, together with his boundless capacity for love. 

 Maurice has lived many roles on many different stages throughout his life – often at the same time – and he is simply one of those human beings who has excelled at every task he has undertaken,  at every calling he has answered.  And whether as father, husband, pastor, psychologist, professor, or writer, Maurice has always sought to lift others in the name of Jesus.

But it is perhaps as a preacher where Maurice has achieved the fullest expression of his gifts, and those blessed to have witnessed him from the pulpit instantly recognize that they are in the presence of theological, and rhetorical, brilliance.    The prodigy of his mentor in Christ, the legendary and charismatic Bishop John Bryant, Rev. Wilson is an ordained African Methodist Episcopal minister who, for 15 years, pastored St. John’s AME church in Baltimore, the largest AME congregation in its district at the time.  Serving as one of the lead pastors of the historic Baltimore Annual Conference, Rev. Wilson was a major influence on the Board of Examiners, which prepares men and women to serve as ministers with the AME Church, and authored some of the required readings for those seeking ordination.

From the beginning, Maurice’s  ministerial style reflected his deeper nature and temperament: thoughtful, incisive, brutally honest, and, at turns, intensely emotional and hilarious.  As his congregants know, Maurice’s  sermons are deeply steeped in scripture, but his humor makes the medicine not only palatable, but welcome.  And that voice, an instrument rooted in its deeply resonant bass notes, but able to climb an octave or more as the content of his message inexorably yields to the sheer passion and intensity that always lurks just below the surface. 

Maurice was born in Baltimore on February 13, 1942.  He barely knew his father, and was raised by a woman who would be the central influence in his life – his mother, Selma, who remains in good health and great spirits at the age of 100!  Selma Wilson’s father had been born just 12 years after slavery had been abolished, and he would make his living as a sharecropper on land he purchased in North Carolina – the very same land his own father had worked as a slave.  (The family today continues to own the same plot of land.) Selma’s father was  also an ordained minister who infused Selma with the deep faith, strong work ethic, and abiding self-respect with which Selma would infuse her son. 

Selma also made sure that Maurice’s education included an appreciation of literature, and she took the youngster to the library throughout his childhood, exposing him to the world of the written word that he has treasured  throughout his life.  As a child, he began his life of service as a Boy Scout and youth choir member.  Selma also impressed upon Maurice the importance of treating women with dignity and respect.  Of course, her example was the truest teacher, as Maurice observed a mother who assisted 13 of her 16 siblings out of poverty in North Carolina to create productive lives, mostly in Baltimore.  Selma Wilson was, and is,  strong, capable, and loving – qualities which, not coincidentally, his beloved Becky possesses in abundance.

As a young adult, Maurice continued his life of service, joining the Army prior to completing his college education.  He served overseas as a medic in Germany, where he matured as a man, and as a disciple of Christ. Upon leaving the service he returned to Baltimore to complete his education.  

Maurice’s educational and professional resume is so extensive that it begs the question: Where did he find the time? He earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Morgan State College in Baltimore, followed by a Masters of Science and a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.  Maurice added a Masters of Arts in Theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University.  He was a tenured Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Coppin Campus, where he shared his knowledge and assisted in molding future psychologists, and is a proud and active alumnus of the Alpha Phi Alpha Academic Fraternity.  Where did he find the time? 

For years, Maurice has also worked as an addiction treatment counselor, and also as a researcher/evaluator of addiction treatment facilities for the federal government.   Most recently, he has served as COO and  Quality Improvement Officer at New Directions for Women in Costa Mesa, an in-patient treatment program for women where Becky – a nationally-recognized authority in addiction treatment and recovery – serves as CEO. Maurice holds multiple drug counseling certifications, including Behavior Health Surveyor, Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Behavioral Health Program Surveyor, and Certified Clinical Supervisor.

But Maurice would trade all of his degrees,  certificates and accomplishments for the role he most relishes – that of father to his children and husband to his wife.   He and Becky head a blended family of six children: Maurice T. Wilson, Jr., Maureen Wilson, Robert Andrew Sheppard, Margaret E. Smith, William Arthur Sheppard, and Samuel Wade Taylor Wilson, their spouses Derek, Ashlee, and Jess and five grandchildren – Demetri, Logan, Sara, Jordan, and Ally.  Maurice also dearly loved Becky’s mother, Elizabeth Jayne Flood, who Maurice always looked to as a kindred spirit.  Elizabeth passed five years ago.

Naturally, it was to his family to whom Maurice quickly turned when he learned of his illness.  Convening his children and their spouses on a conference call from around the United States, Maurice, ever the teacher, found the teaching moment in his own mortality.   Invoking Jesus’ words from the Garden of Gethsemane, Maurice reminded, and reassured, his children that it is, finally, for God to decide how long we are to drink from the cup of life:   “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.” 

Maurice Wilson.  First, and last, a father to his children, a husband to his wife.  And a Fisher of Men. 

Chris Mears