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Special Women's Outpatient |
 | Project SAFE |
| Healthy Start |
| Perinatal Addiction Treatment Services (PATS) |
| DCFS Expansion |
Project SAFE is an intensive outpatient program for women with chemical dependency problems and young children. Referred by the Department of Children and Family Services, clients and their children are called for daily by Project SAFE Outreach workers and transported in vans form their west side homes to the Haymarket Center annex. They may bring their young children to the playroom of Sangamon House recovery home during their intensive outpatient sessions, which take place five days a week.
A hot lunch is served before clients and their children are transported back home.
The program aims at intervention, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for the chemically-dependent mother, and to enhance parental and family functions.
Project SAFE does not discharge clients should they relapse. However, the program counselor and DCFS counselors may recommend their moving to another level of care, such as to a residential program.
The Outreach workers who drive vans, providing transportation to the clients and their children to the program site and back home, are of key importance to Project SAFE.
As time permits, they also take clients to court appointments and doctor visits and on other important errands. They also conduct regular home visits, keeping counselors abreast of the home environment of clients. In certain circumstances, they may provide an immediate buffer for clients against potential relapse.
Healthy Start is a specialized, intensive substance abuse education program for women who have children of less than one year old. They are referred from two case management agencies, the Henry Booth Community Organization, and the Chicago Urban League.
Sessions are held in the Haymarket House annex. Children accompany their mothers and are taken to the playroom of the Sangamon House recovery home during the four-hour daily sessions.
Experienced counselors provide individual and group counseling for chemically-dependent mothers and also encourage family involvement and proper parenting.
Of key importance to this program are the Outreach workers who drive vans that provide transportation to the clients and their children to the program site and back home. As time permits, they also take clients to court or doctors visits and on other important errands. The Outreach workers conduct regular home visits, keeping counselors abreast of the home environments of clients and, in certain circumstances, they may provide an immediate buffer for clients against potential relapse.
Perinatal Addiction Treatment Services were initiated in 1994 as an extension of the pioneering Maternal Addiction Center (MAC) at Haymarket Center. In 1990, the MAC Unit provided a sole source of care for the pregnant, substance-abusing woman throughout her pregnancy.
By demonstrating that good care, medical attention and professional counseling in a safe environment could bring the chemically-dependent woman into recovery and enable her to give birth to a healthy, drug-free baby, the MAC program gave hope to many more mothers-to-be than limited capacity could handle.
This perinatal program offers the same variety of help on an outpatient basis.
Alcohol and other drug education and counseling are provided. Individual client needs guide the treatment course. Nutritional guidance and classes in parenting prepare clients for motherhood. Those who enter the residential MAC program before giving birth may have their residential stay shortened through PATS' provision for aftercare on an outpatient basis.
Post-partum clients or women with older, pre-school children at home may bring them tot he playroom of the Sangamon House recovery home during the daily sessions, held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Two geographically distinct programs initiated by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) serve women on DCFS files who are mandated to primary substance abuse treatment. They are transported to two sites:
| Serving the Grand Boulevard community, Haymarket Center
programs take place at the Washington Park YMCA at 5000
South Indiana Avenue, where a playroom for children is
also staffed by Haymarket Center. Three hour sessions take place in the morning and afternoon on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. |
| Another program, for the Austin Area, provides transportation for women and their children to the Haymarket Center Annex at 933 West Washington Boulevard. Two-hour sessions are held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with lectures and counseling for the women while their children are cared for in the Sangamon House recovery home's playroom. |