Meta House’s comprehensive treatment program features a wide variety of services. We know that each woman’s past and journey into recovery is unique; for that reason, each client will work with her treatment team to create an individualized plan that addresses her specific needs and concerns. Each plan will incorporate any number of these service components:
Meta House offers in-person services with some services being available via Telehealth. Please call for more information. For our Residential program, please call (414) 977-5884. For our Outpatient program, please call (414) 962-1200. For more information about our Recovery Community (housing), please call (414) 977-5880. For all other inquiries, please contact us at (414) 962-1200.
SUD treatment is offered by a trained and qualified staff of professionals who implement research-based best practices. Meta House’s substance use disorder services are unique and effective because they are built upon the principles of gender-responsive treatment. The overwhelming majority of women who are addicted to substances are survivors of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. The impact of this abuse leads many women to numb the pain by turning to substances. Finding themselves addicted to substances, women need to learn to manage their emotions and practice essential skills to live life without substances.
SUD services include counseling, therapy, education, relapse prevention, process and goal setting, meditation, and urine screens. Women learn the root causes of their substance use, while learning new and healthy ways to cope. Women are empowered with the tools to manage trauma in order to reduce relapses. Meta House does not provide detoxification services; however, it is expected that many women will be admitted immediately following detoxification.
One-on-One Counseling/Therapy Sessions provide a setting to discuss and understand the most intimate details of each woman’s life as it impacts her substance use and desire to change. It is also the opportunity to establish, review, and revise each woman’s individual treatment plan and to evaluate progress and focus on specific individual needs.
Process Groups provide a forum to address and discuss current problems and concerns, consider alternative strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges of recovery, teach new ways to handle triggering situations, and generate mutual support and a sense of belonging.
Group Counseling/Therapy Sessions provide a safe and confidential forum to encourage the process of introspection and internal change that helps to identify critical events, traumas, and situations from the past that influence current ways of thinking, coping, and relating to others. The implications of physical violence and sexual and emotional abuse are explored in-depth, allowing the women to see the connections between their traumatic pasts and their substance use.
Chemical Dependency Education provides instruction on the ways in which chemical dependence affects women, their children, and their relationships with other adults. The physical and mental health and social and economic consequences of drug use are addressed.
“Seeking Safety” Treatment Group recognizes that the vast majority of Meta House’s clients have faced traumatic life experiences. The program makes the connections between the symptoms of trauma (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health disorders) and substance use disorder/dependence. This group also teaches clients safe coping skills amidst triggers and techniques to manage trauma.
DBT Skills Group focuses on skills required to maintain emotional balance while navigating complex, stressful situations.
Smoking Cessation focuses on creating a positive, drug-free clinical setting. Tobacco is treated alongside drugs and alcohol as an addictive substance. Therapists establish treatment plans in collaboration with clients to cope with potential triggers, cravings, and relapses. Therapists utilize motivational interviewing techniques to help clients explore and seek behavior change (smoking cessation). A smoking cessation group meets weekly and is mandatory for smokers in the residential and recovery community programs and available for clients in the outpatient program.
Mental Health Services are often needed for women who are dependent on substances because they typically suffer from co-occurring mental health disorders (a mental health disorder diagnosis along with a substance use disorder diagnosis). Women who use or are dependent on substances are very likely to have a history of childhood and/or adult abuse and trauma, which sometimes results in mental health concerns. With a multi-disciplinary and experienced staff, Meta House is uniquely equipped to support such women.
At Meta House, we treat the whole person and women who suffer from mental health disorders face an additional barrier to recovery. We ensure that women who suffer from a co-occurring mental health disorder receive appropriate diagnoses, support and treatment and are equipped with the tools to manage their disorders, which increases their likelihood of successful recovery. All staff are specially-trained to understand the dynamics of mental health and substance use, especially when there is a history of trauma and abuse.
Professional Staff: Meta House is staffed with a psychiatrist who is also an addictionologist, Master’s level mental health staff, and consulting psychologists.
Trauma Treatment: a program specifically for women with substance use disorders.
Parenting Program for women with histories of childhood sexual abuse and other trauma.
Referral Services to connect women with additional support when necessary.
Recovering from a substance use disorder is only one of the challenges Meta House clients face. Poverty, poor physical and mental health, past and current violence, inadequate housing, and lack of job and parenting skills add to the complexity of day-to-day life.
Most women we serve are involved not only in substance use disorder treatment at Meta House, but also other systems, such as child welfare, W-2 (Wisconsin’s TANF program), and the criminal justice system. While facing these complicated realities, most women enter treatment without a support network. Meta House has implemented intensive Case Management services to help women navigate through these complex systems and by helping her to:
Build a network of family, friends, spiritual and professional support which increases her ability to cope after leaving treatment;
Increase her retention in the program which will increase her ability to maintain sobriety;
Coordinate her service plan
Case Managers: From the time she is admitted, the client is assigned a Case Manager who will remain with her and her family throughout the course of treatment at Meta House. The Case Manager serves as a systems navigator for all service coordination, problem solving, and crisis intervention.
Intensive Case Management to help women prioritize their needs and access resources, such as housing and medical services.
Coordinated Care works closely with other systems to coordinate care, so that all the helpers are working together on the family’s behalf.
Single Plan of Care works with the members of the client’s support network to reflect the individual woman’s needs and drives her treatment.
The philosophy at Meta House serves the goal of supporting children, teaching parenting, rebuilding and strengthening families, and breaking the cycle of inter-generational substance dependence. Meta House gives priority to women who are pregnant. Although Meta House coordinates child and family care with other agencies, Meta House is one of the only treatment centers in the state that allows children to live with their mothers in the residential treatment and housing programs and to receive intervention services. Child care is provided.
Skill Building Classes includes parenting education and coaching, child development classes, nutrition education, living and health skills training, social skill-building and cultural development, relapse prevention, and trigger awareness classes for families and children.
Nurturing Care Program focuses on teaching parents to be sensitive and aware of children’s emotional needs and works with the family history and trauma.
In-home visits and individual sessions.
Baby Health: birth to 10 developmental screenings and pre-natal and post-natal care coordination.
Infant Mental Health assessments identify and treat early mental health concerns.
Mother, Child and Family Interactions: includes family activities and outings and reunification services.
“Mom and Me”– facilitated interaction between parent and child.
Filial Therapy– teaches parents to practice child-centered play therapy techniques with the goal of strengthening relationships.
“Celebrating Families” – a 13-week, evidence-based program guided by a caring, multidisciplinary team, designed to guide entire families through the healing process.
Meta House recognizes the significance that education and vocational ability have on self-sufficiency, financial freedom, and self-esteem. Upon entering Meta House, the majority of clients have not completed high school or received a GED. The majority of clients read at an 8th grade level and many are functionally illiterate. Addiction and a lack of education usually leads to a scattered employment history. Due to social stigmas, it is very difficult for a person with a criminal record or a history of substance use to find employment.
The vocational and educational services at Meta House helps ensure that each of our clients has an increased sense of self-worth and sense of purpose, is less likely to relapse into active substance use, is empowered to be financially independent, and has the tools needed to become a productive, contributing member of society.
Case Management: includes vocational and educational case management and service plan development.
Job Readiness: once stabilized, women can access a pre-employment group, where we can assess skills and resources needed to become job ready.
Training: weekly vocational and educational group that covers topics such as budgeting, resume writing, application writing, and interviewing skills.
Support and Assistance: with W-2 TANF benefits when appropriate, Social Security and Disability; job retention support to ensure women maintain employment. Additionally, Meta House staff builds relationships with area employers to increase job prospects for clients.
On-Site Literacy Center provides assistance with reading, writing, spelling, and math skills, GED/HSED preparation, driver’s license written test preparation, computer training software, and Testing for Adult Basic Education (TABE).
Meta House is proud to serve women enrolled in the Milwaukee County Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) program.
Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) is a recovery-focused, integrated behavioral health program for adults with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorders and children with severe emotional disturbance. CCS is unique for its inclusion of both children and adults and its focus on other physical illness and impact on multiple system use. CCS provides a coordinated and comprehensive array of recovery services, treatment, and psychosocial rehabilitation services that assist individuals to utilize professional, community, and natural supports to address their needs. CCS is a community-based program in which the majority of services are provided in clients’ homes and communities. The program is person-centered and uses client-directed service plans to describe the individualized services that will support the client to achieve their recovery goals. Services are provided by teams of professionals, peer specialists, and natural supports, all coordinated by a CCS care coordinator.
Please click here for a copy of the CCS brochure.
Ready to apply for the program? Start the process by calling (414) 257-6060.
Note to CCS care coordinators: when calling for an intake, please let the receptionist know that client has CCS funding.
