Hispanic Program

The MARS-ATP Hispanic Intensive and General Outpatient Drug & Alcohol Treatment Program evolved and developed by a vision shared by two Latina counselors. This vision has been shared by many Hispanic counselors who work and live in communities where drugs and alcohol have severely impacted the Latin community. In these communities, treatment providers hire Hispanic counselors if they have the right educational background. Other providers are willing to invest in marginal training as an investment for their company. The US 2020 census estimated the PA population for 2021 would grow to 12.96 million. They also indicated that the languages spoken in PA would be English as primary at 89%, Spanish as secondary at 4.8%, and others languages as tertiaries at 0.7% (US Census Bureau, 2020). Having a few bi-lingual counselors does not constitute a Hispanic Program, it is just a provider with Spanish speaking staff.

The Lehigh Valley Hispanic Community was being disproportionally affected by the disease of addiction. However, the Lehigh Valley lacked a culturally appropriate, client centered, community based, quality treatment services geared specifically towards the needs of the Hispanic community. One of the unique things about MARS-ATP that separates them from others is that MARS-ATP encourages creativity in its people and supports their vision. “If you see a need in the community, figure out how to fill it and MARS will stand behind you (Greg Krausz).” In 2017, two Latina counselors saw that the Hispanic community in the Lehigh Valley needed a culturally appropriate, community based, quality treatment services and set out to fill that need. Another unique quality of MARS-ATP agency is the support the agency provides the staff in the development of new ideas and projects to address emerging issues in the communities we live and work. The Hispanic Program went from vision to fruition, from the drawing table to the community using outreach, word of mouth, from intake to probation, and the courts.

The MARS-ATP Hispanic program was created. The Hispanic program is composed of highly trained professionals in the fields of addiction, family therapy, psychology, mental health, social work, and criminal justice. All the services and materials in the program are in the client’s native language, Spanish. MARS has taken great pains to ensure the Hispanic program is culturally sensitive to the population it serves. The staff can be appropriately responsive to the attitudes, feelings, and circumstances of the Hispanic clients.

Hispanics and Latinos may have distinctive racial, national, religious, and/or cultural heritage; but we share one commonality the Spanish language.

Therapeutic Interventions Utilized:

Psychoeducational Groups: Utilizing didactic, interactive, as well as visual components to accommodate different learning styles and educational levels.

Skills development Groups: These types of groups allow the clients to practice certain skills in the safety of the group setting, i.e., refusal & relapse prevention skills. Assertiveness training or stress management.

Support Groups: Is a process-oriented group where members discuss immediate issues. They focus on ways to change negative thinking, ways to relate to others, learn to manage conflict effectively, and deal with emerging obstacles.

Interpersonal Process Groups: These types of groups focus on an issue of particular significance for the members like criminality, gender issues, history of trauma, or co-dependency issues.