Evaluating Seeking Safety with Mixed Gender Groups in Community Treatment

Seeking Safety is an evidence-based treatment for conditions that frequently co-occur, substance abuse and PTSD. It has been evaluated in a number of settings with single gender groups. Our aim was to implement and evaluate its use in community behavioral health settings with mixed gender groups. The groups were conducted in a residential substance abuse treatment center with women and men of several ethnicities. Other modifications necessary to our setting were made including: allowing clients to join at any time; modifying the topic order presentation or letting clients choose the topic order. To measure outcomes, we used the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist (LASC), a measure of PTSD symptoms. Qualitative and quantitative client satisfaction measures were also collected. The results, to be presented, showed a significant decrease overall in LASC sores over time (sessions attended). Client satisfaction was high and often requests were received requests from clients to take the group again. Lessons learned from the implementation included: assign one interested and willing staff person to the initial implementation, use it initially in a setting where groups are easier to start, experiment with adaptations that seem to be necessary, collect evaluation data, review it regularly and have one person track it over time, contact the EBP innovator with questions as needed. Our experience indicates that Seeking Safety may be used successfully with mixed-gender groups, open enrollment, and varying the topic order. Because it is flexible and user friendly, it is an excellent fit for use in community behavioral health settings.