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'The Real Issue Is Oppression'
BNH interviews Donna Campbell, who in March was named executive director of the Connecticut Consortium for Women & Their Children with Behavior Health Needs.
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Business New Haven
10/4/1999
By: BNH
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What has been the mission of the consortium, and how is that changing?
For nine years it's been a program in New Haven. Initially it was started to reduce infant mortality, because studies showed that a number of the babies that were not surviving infancy were born to women with addictive disorders. For the last nine years it's functioned in that role - to help bring multiple providers together, to help bring multiple services to help women get access to treatment in all its forms that would help them recover from addiction. When I came on board we decided that what we had learned down here in New Haven was important to the rest of the state. And that we should go statewide and help not only to develop practices based on what we've been doing in New Haven, but also to expand our mission to include the concept of behavioral health, which is the theory that women with addictive disorders are not just struggling with addictive disorders, they're struggling with psycho-social issues, mental-health issues, histories of trauma, basic needs issues that all affect the outcome of her recovery.
What are some of the specific ways in which you're going to address these new areas?
We are not a direct service-provider. We see ourselves in the role of doing three four basic things, the first being policy. Certain systems in the government, for instance, ask women to do multiple conflicting things. The welfare-to-work system might say to a woman, 'You must get a job.' While the child welfare system is saying, 'In order to get your child back, you have to go into treatment, and you have to stay in treatment.' While the work system is saying, 'You have to work the entire day.' So that makes treatment pretty impossible. On the advocacy side, we see ourselves in the role of educating legislators, educating the public about the special needs of women who have addictive disorders, because it's different for men. And on the technical assistance and training side, [our mandate is to [assist] various state agencies, especially the Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services - which funds us - in helping providers understand how you go about delivering services to this population. What are the best practices in terms of women who not only have addictive disorders, but co-occurring disorders, like histories of trauma?
At what point in the transition of the agency's geographic scope and mission are you right now?
We're just now developing a number of things. We're developing a clinical model for women and children. We're looking at some research and some opportunities to deal directly with women. We are developing best-practice curriculum. We're doing some research on what's being done across the country, and we're continuing to do policy things.
What or who drove the changes in the role of the consortium?
Even before I came on board the consortium had been looking at reorganizing itself. There was some discussion about what the consortium could best do once it became its own organization and had applied for 5O1(c)3 [non-profit] status. When I was approached about the job, my idea became the advocacy and technical-assistance role. They were looking for an executive director to come in and put their spin on what they had already started, which was to broaden their focus.
When did you become independent?
We got the 5O1(c)3 status in June. So as of July 1 we officially became the Connecticut Consortium for Women & Their Children with Behavior Health Needs. Before that, all of our funding had come from the Hospital of Saint Raphael and also through Fighting Back prior to that. Now the Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services funds us, and we're now looking at other funding streams as well.
Tell us about your background and how you became interested in this area of work and in this particular position.
I'm a clinical social worker. I've been working for the past few years in some broad-based, large-scale health-care organizations and delivery systems. I've worked with managed care, I've worked with welfare reform, I've worked with organizing and delivery of services to women with addictive disorders. I ran a private practice, and I've worked directly with women and children for more than 20 years. I've been associated with the consortium and with the prior director for a couple of years. I've always been a supporter of this organization. And this is actually the job I've been looking for, where what I can do is broad-based policy and typical assistance stuff - and try to do some change on lots of different systems levels.
What changes have you seen in your years of working in the women's health care/substance abuse system?
Unfortunately, not enough good ones. I think we're going backward in time in some ways - in still not understanding that women are not being just bad or belligerent when they have addictive disorders, that they have recognizable physical, medical and psychological problems, that many of these have roots in social problems and histories of abuse, and that the real issue is oppression.
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