PROJECT WAVE (WOMEN ACHIEVING VITAL EMPOWERMENT) CSAT Targeted Capacity Expansion: Project WAVE (Women Achieving Vital Empowerment) Under a three-year Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) targeted capacity expansion (TCE) grant, AHP is evaluating the Women Achieving Vital Empowerment (WAVE) project which is designed to increase substance abuse services to victims of domestic violence. This project is specifically targeted at rural Barnstable County on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and the challenges of serving women survivors and their children, many with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders, living in rural communities. The WAVE project includes training for staff of both substance abuse and domestic violence agencies on how to respond to the two issues in an integrated fashion. The project is also providing evidence-based program enhancements, including improved identification, treatment planning, resource management, and integrated substance abuse/ trauma group services delivered at the domestic violence/sexual assault program sites. AHP works closely with program developers, clinicians, and consumers to design an evaluation which responds to federal and local demands. As a start-up program, for example, AHP worked with program staff to create logic models and fidelity instruments for the new intervention as well as a design which includes feedback about the ongoing implementation of the expanded and enhanced services. AHP will measure outcomes at the system, program, and individual levels. The evaluation includes process, outcome, and fidelity components and uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. In-person interviews with 240 women at two project sites are conducted at three points (baseline, six months, and at discharge from the program in addition to a sample of twelve months) and the primary outcomes of interest include drug and alcohol use and their impact on functioning; engagement in education, job training, and employment; income; criminal justice status; health status; trauma and other mental health symptoms; retention in services; child custody status; and parenting skills. The Lead Evaluator routinely reports findings at scheduled Advisory Committee meetings. AHP also will collaborate with the client to disseminate findings widely through oral presentations at consumer, provider, and researcher meetings.
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