Humana grants $750K to faith-based organization helping mothers with substance abuse in Georgia

VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - The Volunteers of America Southeast received a grant from Humana to provide more healthcare and services for women in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Humana Healthy Horizons and the Humana Foundation gave the Volunteers of America Southeast a $750,000 grant.

The organization has a substance abuse facility in Valdosta that serves women and their children. The facility has an on-site childcare center that provides the children with a safe environment and stimulating environment while their mothers receive treatment.

“Humana has given us these funds to allow us to ernhance the services that we provide. It is going to do a lot of things for us. It’s going to allow us to implement a family-focused recovery model of treatment that is very intensive on keeping the family together versus having them get split up.,” Rob Rogers, president and the CEO of the Volunteers of America Southeast, said.

Rogers said that the grant will also allow them to bring in a higher level of clinical services and a lot of training to the staff they already have. They can also do beautification on the property and communal kitchen.

Rogers said substance abuse is a much-needed medical service in South Georgia, especially the rural areas.

“There’s not a lot of options for people with addiction issues in some of these rural areas, and we draw from all over the place, not just greater Valdosta, but all over the state. We get people that come to the service,” he said.

According to Rogers, the Family-Focused Recovery (FFR) program is a terrific program.

“It’s a proven model. It reduces rates of incarceration for this population, prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. It reduces the number of times that children have to be removed from these situations and placed in foster care, and it increases employment, among other things,” he said.

FFR has cut down on neonatal abstinence syndrome, which is when infants in the womb have been exposed to drugs. Once those infants are birthed they experience withdrawals. In turn, the cut down on neonatal abstinence syndrome cuts down on NICU use days and healthcare costs.

Anyone interested can call the Volunteers of America Southeast and staff will work with them to plug into one of those referral sources. They can also visit voase.org and look for Pines.

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