The Portal Project

SUMMARY Palladia, Inc. is a not-for-profit, multi-service agency, located in New York City, serving primarily African-American and Latino communities. Palladia's Portal Project, in collaboration with the evaluation team from Hunter College School of Social Work (HCSSW), participated in the national Women, Co-Occurring Disorders and Violence study. We studied 270 women with co-occurring issues of alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems and mental illness, who had histories of violence, and were high end users of service. Palladia built an integrated system of care and implemented a comprehensive trauma-informed intervention that is designed to put trauma and safety first to assist women in remaining in treatment. Primacy of trauma in the early stages of treatment constitutes a major philosophical shift within the traditional residential drug treatment setting. The focus of the engagement and treatment process is on the role of trauma in the woman's life and its relationship to patterns of AOD abuse and menta...