The Take 10! Transforming Care for Women with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and their Families series discusses current issues and challenges confronted by diverse women presenting with substance use, SUDs, and who are in recovery. Women experience SUD in ways that are distinct from men. Historically, access to treatment for women has been limited, a disparity that persists today. Studies show that when women begin treatment for SUDs, they frequently arrive with more severe medical, behavioral, psychological, and social struggles compared to men. For these reasons, there is a need for gender-specific services.
Topic 7 (Panel Presentation): Cultural Considerations for SUDs Treatment and Recovery for Women from Diverse Racial/Ethnic Groups
This 1.5 hour panel presentation will introduce participants to the emotional, physical, and socioeconomic factors that uniquely impact women during treatment, and especially how these factors relate to the cultural considerations for treating SUDs for women from diverse racial/ethnic groups.
Learning Objectives
This panel presentation will address the cultural considerations for treating SUDs for women from diverse racial/ethnic groups with a special focus on the following information:
CERTIFICATES:
Registrants who fully attend this event or training will receive a certificate of attendance via email within two weeks after the event or training.
Panelists:
Gabriela Zapata-Alma, LCSW, CADC, (they, them, elle) is the Associate Director at the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health, as well as a Lecturer at the University of Chicago, where they direct the Alcohol and Other Drug Counselor Training Program within the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Gabriela brings 20 years of experience supporting people impacted by structural and interpersonal violence and their traumatic effects through innovative and evidence-based clinical, housing, resource advocacy, peer-led, harm reduction, and HIV-integrated care programs. As a person with lived experience of violence and trauma, they center survivor-driven solutions, nonpathologizing approaches, and intergenerational healing in their work. Their current work focuses on authoring best practices, leading national capacity-building efforts, and providing trauma-informed policy consultation to advance health equity and social justice. Outside of work, Gabriela deeply values volunteering as a trauma therapist with survivors of torture and spending time in nature with family.
Kateri Coyhis, Mohican Nation, is the Executive Director of White Bison in Colorado Springs, CO. White Bison, Inc., is an American Indian non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to creating and sustaining a grassroots Wellbriety Movement that provides culturally based healing to the next seven generations of Indigenous People. Kateri serves the Wellbriety Movement by providing community presentations to bring awareness to the programs White Bison offers for individual family, and community healing. She has been providing training, delivering a variety of presentations, and offering technical assistance for over 20 years. She is also a Board Member for the National Association for Children of Addiction.
Kateri is co-author for a chapter in Radical Psychology: Multicultural and Social Justice Decolonization Initiatives (2018). Kateri received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Dawn Nickel, PhD is a respected thought leader in the women’s recovery sphere and (along with her daughter Taryn Strong) the Co-Founder of the SHE RECOVERS® Foundation, a nonprofit charity whose mission is to redefine recovery, inspire hope, end stigma and empower women in or seeking recovery from substance use, trauma, mental health issues and related life challenges.
Dawn is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach, with a PhD and over two decades of research, writing and consulting experience related to women and health care policy. In her professional work, Dawn has focused largely on exploring how best to support women who experience challenges related to substance use, mental health issues or intimate partner violence, the three things that prompted Dawn to start her own personal recovery journey in 1987. Dawn is also the author of She Recovers Every Day: Meditations for Women, published by Hazelden in early 2023.
Mary Roberson, EdD has more than 30 years of proficiency in the Behavioral Health field. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Northern Illinois Recovery Community Organization (NIRCO). NIRCO is a nationally recognized Recovery Community Organization whose mission is to promote recovery principles for individuals, families and communities impacted by substance use and mental health.
Dr. Mary retired from Nicasa Behavioral Health Services where she served as Managing Director. She facilitated women’s specialized groups on various traumas for the Circuit Court of Lake County and serves as a member its Drug Court Team and Veterans Treatment Assistance Court. She has consulted and trained in Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida on several behavioral health topics related to women, veterans and the criminal justice system. Dr. Roberson is a proud Navy veteran with deep roots in the veteran’s communities and a person in sustained recovery
Pang Foua Yang Rhodes, PhD is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who has provided couples, family, and individual therapy for over 20 years in private practice and community-based organizations. She has extensive experience counseling Hmong and other Asian Americans and specializes in marital and couples therapy. She is a Minnesota board approved marriage and family therapy supervisor.
Dr. Pang Foua’s driving passion is to see people mentally healthy and thriving in their relationships and communities. She has created training curriculum, conducted program evaluation, and hosted a live call-in radio show in the Hmong language fielding mental health and relationship questions. She has provided pro bono premarital counseling, supervision of BIPOC therapy interns, and consultation. She enjoys speaking at workshops, conferences, and retreats and has lectured across the US and in Canada.
From 2009 – 2019 she was an assistant professor at Argosy University—Twin Cities, where she taught in the Doctorate and Master of Arts programs in Marriage and Family Therapy. She developed and taught courses and advised many students.
Dr. Pang Foua and her husband, Rev. Greg Rhodes, started RiverLife Church in 2014, where she serves as the Spiritual Growth Director. She also serves on the national board of directors for their denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Dr. Pang Foua received a PhD in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota, a MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA), and a BS in Psychology from Brown University (Providence, RI).
The Great Lakes ATTC is offering this training for individuals working in HHS Region 5: IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI. This training is being provided in response to a need identified by Region 5 stakeholders.
