What is WINGS?

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a serious public health threat among women who use drugs and/or alcohol (WWUD). Rates of all types of IPV among WWUD have been found to be 3-5 times higher than among the general population of women. Yet, only 1 out of 20 WWUD who experience IPV ever receive any IPV-related services. Failure to address IPV among WWUD has been found to increase the likelihood of continued drug use, relapse, attrition from drug treatment and host of other negative physical and mental health consequences. WINGS is a single-session intervention that aims to address a critical gap in IPV services for WWUD by identifying WWUD in the community at risk of IPV, enabling them to develop social support and safety planning skills to reduce their risks for IPV and linking them to IPV-related services and substance use treatment.

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WINGS may be delivered by a facilitator, counselor, social worker, case manager/case worker, other helping professional or a peer advocate with sufficient training. We developed a computerized self-paced version of WINGS that covers the same core SBIRT components as the facilitator version of WINGS and has been found to be equally effective in identifying different types of IPV, increasing IPV self-efficacy, and increasing social support and access to IPV services.