What is Gender-Specific Rehab?
A growing advancement in drug and alcohol treatment programs is gender-specific rehab programs. Gender-specific programs meet patients’ needs with different rationalizing, motivating, and healing methods throughout the treatment process.
Fundamental biological and cultural differences between genders occur with substance abuse, just as in other aspects of life. While women possess unique clinical needs, men face gender-based challenges pointed directly to their roles and expectations in society. Progressive treatment centers are aware of the differences each gender faces and have set out to meet the challenge.
Why Is Gender-Specific Rehab Beneficial?
Designing gender-specific treatment options eliminates stigma-based judgments within the genders that could take away from the focus on treatment. Medical and mental health programs are also gender-specific to address the symptoms of addiction.
Consequently, offering a gender-focusing treatment plan fine-tunes the individual treatment plan for tremendous success in recovery. Men and women have different experiences with addiction. In reviewing national data sources, the results point to differences in the substances they choose and their reasons for using. Men tend to use a substance in search of a beneficial effect on their behaviors, cognitive functions, and social interactions, and even to enhance their sexual experiences.
Women reach out to a substance to self-medicate with issues that include abuse and victimization. It makes sense that their treatment options need to steer toward gender-specific goals, therapies, and education.
Significant differences require specific treatment types to address the needs of the gender and promote group understanding during the process. Treatment attitudes and beliefs depend on different mindsets based on gender; after all, everyone knows that men and women think very differently.
The data continually points to differences in genders, whereas research supports women having more co-occurring psychological distress, anxiety, mood, and eating disorders than men. With a long-term goal of longevity of sobriety, gender-specific rehab can be the definitive aspect of treatment contributing to the prevention of relapse, beginning with detox geared explicitly for men.
Gender-Specific Rehab and Safe Spaces
In substance treatment, the facility must offer a sense of safety and protection from any harmful or stigmatizing attitudes. Consequently, women understand the challenges they face, and likewise, with men so that they can empathize and offer supportive measures within their gender.
Patients in substance treatment can have fragile mindsets and many walls to climb over to make progress in their personal growth. Therefore, every consideration to include a sense of safety to express and process emotions and feelings during the treatment experience without the fear of negative repercussions is essential.
Sensitive issues such as domestic violence, abuse, and other victimizations are complex experiences viewed differently between the sexes. Generational, historical concepts are often gender-based core beliefs that the opposite sex can misunderstand.
Providing a safe environment in a treatment setting allows individuals to express themselves without fear of judgment. Sharing personal experiences can promote a new sense of trust in relationships and personal growth.
Building Community
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association points out that gender-specific treatment is beneficial for women who have separate issues, such as pregnancy, that men have no understanding of. The biology of each sex plays a factor in their attitudes. Thus, with hormones in women often misunderstood by men, women must support each other.
Gender-specific rehab helps to build community within same-sex individuals who face different gender challenges because of race, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds. Likewise, this benefits men in building a supportive community because women have little understanding of the biological aspects men face in life challenges.
Focused Treatments and Therapies
Evidence-based therapies are universal; primarily, individual and group therapies are essential. Still, during the critical first step of treatment, detox programs specifically for women or men can be foundational in a successful recovery. Women have unique clinical needs a gender-based program can address in a safe environment, including only women. Additionally, addressing the roles of women as caregivers and nurturers for the family can be investigated through family therapy.
Group therapy for men can examine and unfold the cultural roles and stereotypes that men struggle with. Apart from this, men struggle with processing their emotions and feelings, often having no role model with positive coping mechanisms.
Detox programs, specifically for men, can respond to the sensitivities men share and address male thought patterns and behaviors to avoid relapse. Undoubtedly, addiction already owns a great deal of shame and guilt as stumbling blocks, so above all, every supportive measure provides value during the fragility of detox.
Healing Gender-Sensitive Conditions
Healing gender-sensitive conditions require a safe environment, permission to explore the complexities, and a professional trained in delving into very emotional issues. Gender-specific rehab specializes in supporting the individual without interference from misconceptions the other gender may contribute.
Sexual abuse and victimization are challenging topics to address while experiencing physical and psychological stress and discomfort. When choosing a detox and rehab program, consider the availability of gender-based treatment and the value it contains.
Find the Value in Gender-Specific Detox and Rehab in Georgia
There are many complex issues to consider when choosing a detox or rehab program. The Retreat of Atlanta in Georgia brings more options to the table, which look at the specific needs of their patients.
Meeting the individual needs of their patients in every way possible, the center focuses on specialty treatment options that are not available in all treatment centers.
Contact The Retreat of Atlanta today to key in on the choices you need to know more about.