Services for Women

The Horizons’ prenatal clinics are held at UNC Horizons in Carrboro and at UNC WakeBrook in Raleigh. Buprenorphine and naltrexone are available for women using opioids in both locations. At both sites prenatal visits involve a team including a medical provider, a substance use disorder therapist and a care coordinator. The therapist and care coordinator offer services including:

• Helping the patient develop an individual treatment plan
• Providing information about substance use during pregnancy and after the baby is born
• Listening to the patient’s concerns and working with her toward solutions
• Providing counseling for depression, anxiety, stress and other issues
• Referring interested patients to Horizons’ outpatient treatment groups or to a residential program at Horizons or elsewhere in North Carolina

Prenatal Care at UNC Horizons in Carrboro

The clinic team in Carrboro includes the Horizons’ nurse practitioner (Dr. Elisabeth Johnson), a substance use disorder therapist and a care coordinator. Women see the same providers at each visit. Services include health screenings, regular prenatal check-ups, postpartum check-ups after you give birth, family planning services, health evaluations, screening and treatment for STDs, pap smears, well woman gynecology, and meetings with the therapist and/or care coordinator as a part of your medical visits.

Prenatal Care at UNC WakeBrook

The Horizons prenatal clinic in Raleigh is a satellite OB site within UNC WakeBrook. The team includes medical providers, a Horizons substance use disorder therapist, and a Horizons’ peer support specialist/care coordinator. In addition to prenatal and postpartum care women have access to family planning education and contraceptive care, as well as to an on-site primary care provider for ongoing care post-delivery.

The residential program at Horizons, Sunrise, is designed to provide support and services to women and their dependent children in a residential setting. Each family lives in their own fully furnished apartment (rent-free). Treatment goals are individualized to address the needs of each woman and her family. Program elements include:

• To qualify for our residential program a woman needs to either be pregnant or have physical custody of at least one of her children under age 12 who will come to live with her in the residential program.
• The residential program is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Staff interact with women throughout the day and night as needs arise and make rounds on a regular basis.
• The women in the residential program attend full-time treatment programming in Carrboro, including the Horizons’ Substance Abuse Comprehensive Outpatient Treatment (SACOT) program, followed by our Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program (SAIOP).
• Children in the residential families who are up to age five attend the UNC Horizons Child Development Center, a 5-star program onsite in Carrboro. Older children attend the Chapel Hill-Carrboro public schools.
• Residential staff assist each woman with the development of a recovery/substance use prevention plan and a network of support.
• Residential therapists provide regular individual therapy and assist with working toward the achievement of personal goals and recovering from trauma.
• Residential case managers provide assistance with employment or educational advancement, housing, budgeting skills and arranging for services for women and children as needed.

• The program provides transportation and support/advocacy as needed for treatment services, medical and dental appointments, grocery shopping, court and legal appointments, social service appointments, etc.

The Horizons site in Carrboro offers a SACOT (Substance Abuse Comprehensive Outpatient Treatment) program, a SAIOP (Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program), traditional outpatient services, continuing care services, and onsite psychiatry services.

The SACOT Program

The Horizons’ SACOT (Substance Abuse Comprehensive Outpatient Treatment) program meets daily (Monday-Friday) at our Carrboro site for four hours per day, plus time for breaks. The SACOT program includes individual therapy as well as a diverse variety of therapeutic and educational groups. Examples of topics that are covered in group treatment include:

• Addiction Education/Relapse Prevention
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Healthy Relationships
• Parenting
• Women’s Health
• Employment and Budgeting
• Stress Management and Mindfulness
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The Horizons SAIOP

The Horizons SAIOP (Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program) meets in Carrboro three days each week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) for 3 hours (plus a 15-minute break). Topics covered in this program include return to use warning signs/patterns, developing and practicing new recovery management tools, recovery from trauma, and understanding and managing dual diagnoses. Women in the SAIOP also continue to receive individual therapy. Most women at Horizons start with the SACOT program and then move into the SAIOP.

Other Outpatient Services

In Carrboro Horizons also offers individual psychotherapy, family therapy, mother/child dyad therapy, psychiatry services, and care coordination services. For women who are further along in their recovery Horizons offers a Continuing Care Group, led by one of our outpatient therapists, that is focused on living in and maintaining long-term recovery.

The Horizons-Wake Program provides comprehensive substance use disorder treatment for pregnant and parenting women impacted by substance use, violence, and incarceration. The program collaborates with maternal-infant community agencies and stakeholders in the Wake County area to address families’ behavioral and physical health needs.

Outpatient Treatment at Wake

Our team provides culturally responsive behavioral health for women and children residing in Wake County, and surrounding counties. Women and children enrolled in our program can access individualized interventions to promote long-term recovery and caregiver-child connectedness. Some examples of our gender-responsive services and substance use interventions include:

• Comprehensive Clinical Assessments
• Culturally and linguistically responsive treatment planning and referrals
• Addiction Education/Relapse Prevention
• Treatment of co-occurring disorders
• Managing Feelings and Stress
• Relationship and Family Issues
• Women’s Health Services 
• Care coordination and transportation 
• Maternal-infant interventions  and informal childcare
• Employment and Budgeting 
• Access to primary care, psychiatry, and medications to treat substance use disorders and mental health conditions 

Services for Perinatal Women Transitioning from Prisons in Raleigh:

We provide post-release services for perinatal women impacted by substance use disorders who are transitioning from carceral settings to help them avoid overdose death, improve their financial stability and independence, assist them with employment, and support them with maintaining drug abstinence. We aim to strengthen the connection between behavioral health services, post-release programs, and maternal-child health agencies to avoid recidivism and improve positive parenting practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 – 2021), Horizons-Wake, with the support of the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women (NCCIW), provided gender-responsive reentry services for 132 perinatal women living with a substance use disorder. The program was able to avoid fatal overdoses and increase access to medication to treat substance use disorders and behavioral health treatment. The program continues to care for perinatal women experiencing incarceration due to their unmanaged substance use disorder. Please look at the Justice-Involved Services page to learn more about our justice-involved services. To learn more about the outcomes of Horizons-Wake’s reentry program for perinatal women with substance use, you can click here https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38958275/.