Women'S Recovery Center

“Prior to filing, the form 990 is prepared by an independent accountant then presented to the finance staff, and the executive director for review and to the finance committee for approval. The 990 is then presented to the full board of directors for review. The form 990 is distributed in advance of filing in order to provide the directors with an opportunity for meaningful review. A board officer signs the 990.”

“Each year, the board members are asked to review and sign the organization's conflict of interest policy. Among other things, the policy makes clear that all decisions of the board, officers, and employees of the organization are made solely on the basis of a desire to promote the best interest of the organization and the public good. The conflict of interest statement requests board members to identify to the best of their knowledge affiliations with organizations that may be potentially related to the financials or other substantive operations of the organization. They are also asked to identify circumstances involving either themselves, or a member of their extended family, that may be construed as a conflict of interest. At the staff level, the organization's personnel also ensure that there are no conflicts of interest when considering the engagement of a new vendor. If a potential conflict is identified, appropriate steps are taken to both assess the nature of the potential conflict and, subsequently, to ensure that the possibility of a conflict is mitigated. Such mitigation is managed and the letter and spirit of the conflicts policy are upheld.”

“The executive committee annually evaluates the performance of the executive director. Compensation is based on performance and compared to other area mission-comparable organizations of similar size.”

“Compensation for staff within the organization is determined by the executive director. The level of compensation is set based on performance and in relation to other mission-comparable organizations of similar size. This compensation is a component of the budget, which is reviewed and approved by the finance committee and also by the board as a whole.”

“The organization's governing documents, form 990 conflict of interest policy and financial statements are made available to the public upon request. The form 990 can also be found on several publically-accessible websites.”

“The mission of the women's recovery center, providing comprehensive addiction treatment, prevention, and education programs that are client- centered, family-based, and recovery-focused. To achieve this mission, the center creates an environment of recovery and healing that is gender specific and trauma integrated care. The specific program components include: - morning and evening treatment schedules for low income and medically indigent women; - case management to address all barriers to recovery; - family and individual counseling; - art therapy; - parenting classes; - clothing donation closet; - post-discharge planning including individual and small group computer education, budgeting and job search activities. The women's recovery center's website address is www.womensctr.org.”

“The traits of the target population include, 40% are white, 40% are african american and 20% are hispanic. More than 90% of the clients meet the federal poverty guidelines. Based on experience and studies conducted by the substance abuse and mental health services administration, addiction manifests itself very differently for women than men; therefore, it is also estimated that more than 95% of the clients served through the center have experienced trauma such as sexual assault, domestic violence or molestation. The women's recovery center continues to challenge the organizational leadership to review outcomes, explore additional services and implement programming based on best practice standards and evidence based therapies to achieve the national outcome measures. The women's recovery center has adopted program targets that require alcohol and other drug treatment facilities to achieve recognized as the national outcome measures (noms). All alcohol and other drug treatment facilities that receive any federal dollars are required to adopt the program targets. One aspect of the outcome measures requires that 60% of the clients that are engaged in treatment remain clean and sober following discharge. The women's recovery center boasts one of the highest success levels in cuyahoga county with 54% of the clients that are engaged in alcohol and other drug treatment successfully graduate. The opiate crisis has had a significant impact on the volumes of clients, length of stay and the waiting period to be admitted. This change in the addiction culture in northeast ohio is largely attributable to the over prescribing of narcotic pain medications by physicians. With the clients that are being served, opiate addiction and poly substance dependent have increased to 87% of the total clients that are engaged in treatment. Giving the increased needs for detoxification beds, there are insufficient volume of beds for detoxification. The detox facilities are turning women away citing that it is not necessary to be medically monitored in a detox program with each passing week, the heroin crisis continues to impact the lives of women and families. In the first quarter of 2014, cuyahoga county has reported that 38-40 individuals have died from an opiate or heroin overdose. During one weekend in january, eight individuals suffered fatal overdoses. More women are dying in ohio from complications of addiction than from car accidents, breast cancer and homicides combined. Prescription drugs are the gateway drugs that are leading to crisis level addiction to heroin in ohio. This crisis is not limited to the inner city of cleveland but impacts women and their families at all income and socio-economic background. To further complicate this epidemic, given the volume of addicts, the detoxification facilities in cuyahoga county are now turning away individuals seeking detox services stating that opiate and heroin withdrawal does not require a medically monitored detox and the clients are simply told to go home and stop using. As clients begin to withdrawal, she will begin developing flulike symptoms. These withdrawal symptoms persist for 7 - 10 days. During this period without support more than half of these women will be so ill that they understand that they will feel better if they begin using and ultimately relapse. A relapse following a few days or a week of sobriety escalates the chance of an overdose. The reality is that clients that are detoxing are not candidates to be engaged in a treatment program. The clients are consumed with flu-like symptoms and an inability to concentrate and share. The center, in the last months, has had poor results in admitting women to treatment, keeping them engaged before they simply give-up and relapse; therefore, the center has created a proactive model to address these system wide deficiencies. The non-medical outpatient model has been developed and is planned for implementation to address the lack of detoxificat”