Violence against women and substance use prevention initiative - there is a high level of need for coordinated intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use disorder (SUD) services in west…

Violence against women and substance use prevention initiative - there is a high level of need for coordinated intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use disorder (SUD) services in west virginia, particularly for pregnant and parenting women (PPW), as evidenced by high rates of substance use, poor infant and maternal health outcomes, and racial disparities in health, healthcare access and IPV. The purpose of this project is to create a statewide pilot initiative to train substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers on intimate partner violence (IPV) and IPV providers on substance use and to address the intersection of IPV and SUD during the pregnancy and postpartum period. Project goals are to engage state agencies, IPV programs, treatment providers, and other key stakeholders from diverse communities in increasing the use of evidence-based and promising practices in service delivery; to create and deliver training for SUD, IPV, and healthcare providers; and to build a collaborative statewide network of regional teams to promote service implementation at the local level and address access and outcome disparities and unmet needs. To achieve these goals, the national center on domestic violence, trauma, and mental health is partnering with the west virginia department of health and human resources' bureau for behavioral health, the west virginia coalition against domestic violence, the west virginia perinatal partnership, and the marshall university research corporation's west virginia behavioral health workforce and health equity training center to engage in six key activities. First, we will incentivize SUD providers treating pregnant and postpartum women to receive training on identifying IPV in their client population. Second, we will train SUD treatment providers to address IPV with patients and train IPV staff on SUD. Third, we will identify research-based services for screening, assessment, brief intervention, and referral. Fourth we will integrate IPV and SUD protocols into medical prac tice. Fifth we will integrate perinatal and postpartum programs into existing substance use programs. Sixth, we will conduct process and outcomes evaluations to determine changes in providers' knowledge, skill, and comfort in addressing IPV/SU, document changes in referrals and collaboration among state partners, and assess improvement in IPV-SUD health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum women. Our approach builds on west virginia's existing statewide partnerships and networks, incorporates the promising practice of reducing substance use coercion, and responds to the high overdose and drug-related death rate for women in WV.