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New clinic to aid women battling addiction
A local facility dedicated to treating women with substance abuse issues is expanding, opening a new clinic that provides a safe haven, support, and medication to prevent withdrawal symptoms—allowing mothers to heal alongside their children.
HOUSTON - A local facility that helps treat women for substance abuse is opening another clinic! They're enhancing lives, by offering a safe haven for women to stay, even with their children, offering support and medications to try to prevent withdrawal symptoms.
Santa Maria Hostel is one of the largest residential and outpatient treatment centers in Texas, helping women get through and over the cycle of substance abuse. "We're just one of a couple that allow women who are coming into treatment for residential substance use disorder treatment to bring their young children into treatment with them. They otherwise don't have this sober, safe, supportive place for them to be, which can be a real barrier to parenting women wanting to enter treatment," says Dr. Alicia Kowalcik, who is the Medical Director of Santa Maria Hostel. 90% of their clients don't have any form of healthcare coverage. "Santa Maria is contracted by the state of Texas to provide treatment services for folks that are under-resourced, such as most of our clients at Santa Maria Hostel," explains Dr. Kowalcik.
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Twila benefits from the services and is relieved she found out about it. It has been a true life-changer for her, after getting addicted to Fentanyl. "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, you hear everybody say that, but I was, and I needed to find a way to live because I was dying, and I was going to die. No if, and, or but about it, I was going to die," a sobering comment from Twila.
Substance use disorders are one of the leading causes of death, especially for those 18-45 years old, so it's important to seek help. "It's a really big need in our community and often times, as you live with a substance use disorder, you end up losing a job. If you had a job, were not able to complete education, maybe losing a home or even custody of your children. So, Santa Maria is a place that you can come in, literally with just yourself and what you have on you, the clothes on your back, and be welcomed with open arms saying, 'Great, you're making a healthy decision for your life to move forward, we have a place for you," says Dr. Kowalcik.
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Santa Maria takes care of their shelter and food, clothing, and prescriptions for medications to help prevent painful withdrawal symptoms. Now Santa Maria is announcing the opening of a new clinic called I-Care. They certainly do care, but it stands for Integral Care, helping rebuild mental and physical health! Clients like Twila are taught that their problem is an incurable disease. They'll need to be careful for life to stay sober, but that it's absolutely a treatable condition! "I'm so thankful every day that I found this and they were willing to work with me," says Twila.
Twila still comes back monthly. The services here are developed to restore families and promote positive life changes, providing life-saving support as long as needed for a full recovery. Now Twila is training to become a sober coach to share her testimony and pay it forward, by helping others.