Residential Substance Abuse Case Study

Introduction
The Meridian Sid Martin Bridge House is a mixed gender, in-patient residential substance abuse treatment program. The program accommodates twelve women and twenty- four men; the numbers indicate, the program is dominated by males. By observance, mixed gender programs can cause significant distractions in the recovery process. Within a couple weeks of treatment, many clients develop intimate relationships with other clients. It has been reported, that many clients who develop a relationship while in recovery are dismissed from the program, due to inappropriate sexual encounters. Many women have reported experiencing sexual harassment from counselors, staff, and clients while in a mixed-gender treatment program (Soler, Ponser & Abad, 1976; Reed,1985).
The Bridge House program requires clients to participate in five group therapy sessions throughout the day. All clients are encouraged to engage and participate in sessions; however, in mixed gender groups, women express discomfort divulging personal issues and concerns for fear of social stigmas. Gender specific programs will
The limited amount of empirical work reported has been mostly uncontrolled (Smith 1985); therefore, there is a lack of controlled research on single-gender treatment. All readers can understand the problems at hand because the researchers go into great detail to understand the issues women are confronted within a mixed-gender program. Confrontational style of traditional treatment approaches is unsuitable for women (Kauffman, Dore & Nelson-Zlupko 1995). At the group level, women are more apt to discuss concerns with a single gender group rather than a mixed gender group. In a mixed gender group, women are more likely to withhold information disclosing little information to the group. The lack of openness may adversely affect the client's overall outcome of