The use of a multicultural conceptual model in perinatal addiction treatment.

Using a culturally competent approach to address perinatal addiction is essential for promoting a positive response to nursing interventions. Such a health care approach would include sensitivity to cultural values beliefs, and practices specific to the backgrounds of ethnically diverse clients. Clients of Project Hope, a government-funded perinatal addiction treatment program in a midwestern city, are low-income, predominantly African American single parents with a history of substance, family, and/or environmental abuse. A majority had been treated at least once previously for a sexually transmitted disease, placing them in high-risk category for hepatitis and HIV infection. Women remain in the intensive outpatient program an average of 8 months. During that time, the multidisciplinary treatment team use a variety of interventions to address the needs of the clients, which include stable housing, health care, parenting resources, and ongoing social support. The Rooda Conceptual Model of Multicultural Nursing provides a framework for enhancing nurses' understanding of the unique needs of this ethnically diverse population.