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e
d u c a t i n g f a m i l i e s ,
p r o f e s s i o n a l s, a n d
t h e p u b l i c
Prenatal
exposure to alcohol is known to be harmful to the developing
fetus, resulting in severe and lifelong negative consequences.
While surveys indicate that people have heard the term fetal
alcohol syndrome (FAS), reports from parents, school staff,
and health care providers indicate that the general level
of understanding about the condition and the needs of children
who have it are not well understood.
Improvements in screening, identification, and treatment of
children with FAS and other alcohol-related disorders can
be enhanced through systematic efforts to educate health professions
students and practitioners about these disorders. Such efforts
will contribute toward the goal of better identification,
diagnosis, and referral for treatment for individuals with
prenatal alcohol exposure.
Parents, caregivers, school staff, and others who are with
children with FAS every day, can benefit from learning more
about the syndrome, how it affects the child, strategies for
working with the child to best enable him or her to meet his
or her full potential, and how to locate appropriate services
for the affected child and his or her family.
CDC is committed to the education and awareness of those who
care for and work with individuals affected by prenatal alcohol
exposure. CDC supports the following education activities:
Enhanced
Resources for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention
Since FAS
was identified in the medical literature more than thirty years
ago, CDC and other federal agencies and research institutions
have made great progress in understanding its prevalence, risk
factors, and its cost to society. However, progress in the development
of effective FAS education and prevention approaches has not
been as fully realized. Considering the potential to completely
prevent the disorder, FAS research, intervention, and services
must be complemented by enhanced resources for FAS prevention
and education. Various advisory panels and committees and formal
reports on the subject have consistently recommended the development
of comprehensive, scientifically accurate prevention approaches.
FUNDED
PROJECT
National
Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) - Washington,
D.C.
The
goal of the NOFAS cooperative agreement is to develop and
disseminate new fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) prevention and
education resources thereby enhancing the quantity and quality
of available resources for FAS parents and family members,
educators, students, professionals, and the public at-large.
Specifically, NOFAS will conduct the following activities
through this project:
Develop,
implement, and maintain an FAS clearinghouse and resource
center serving researchers, professionals, educators, students,
policymakers, the general public, and those affected by
FAS.
Develop
and implement culturally appropriate FAS prevention activities
and products at the Cherokee Nation consisting of educational
workshops, trainings for clinic personnel to screen women
for alcohol and drug use, and a variety of multi-media messages
and materials.
Develop
a school-based FAS curriculum and tool kit for teachers
to implement with students in Kindergarten through grade
12.
Develop
a plan to disseminate and deliver training on the FAS curriculum
and tool kit to increase the preparedness of teachers in
Kindergarten through grade 12 to teach about FAS.
Develop
and evaluate an FAS public awareness campaign training guide
for use by local and national community-based organizations,
FAS parent support groups, students, and others sponsoring
FAS prevention activities.
FAS
Curricula Now Available!
In 2001, CDC funded four nonprofit organizations to develop
and evaluate educational curricula for various audiences about
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other prenatal alcohol-related
disorders and how to access appropriate services for children
with FAS and their families. After being tested through multiple
trainings and found to be effective, materials from these
four organizations are now available. More about each curriculum
is described below.
The
Arc of the United States—Silver
Spring, Maryland
The Arc has developed and tested a comprehensive curriculum
that can be presented to adult learners in a workshop format.
Three modules address general information about FAS and related
disorders, components of care for children with these conditions,
and advocating for services and supports. Using this curriculum,
The Arc has conducted over 30 trainings in approximately 20
states for more than 1,000 participants, such as parents/caregivers,
professionals, and trainers. For more information about these
materials and how to order them, please visit http://www.thearc.org/fasproject/thecurriculum.htm.
Double
ARC—Toledo,
Ohio
Double ARC has developed and tested separate training curricula
for parents and teachers. The parent curriculum describes
the core deficits of children with FAS and related conditions,
teaches effective parenting techniques addressing these deficits,
and directs parents to service resources for children, including
school programs. The curriculum for teachers describes FAS
and related conditions, ways to recognize children who might
have the condition, and approaches to enhancing school performance.
Double ARC has also created a video on FAS available for use
with the curriculum. Double ARC offers training for facilitators
who will be teaching the parent classes. These materials have
been tested with more than 400 participants in sessions for
parents and teachers. For more information about these materials
and how to order them, please visit http://www.doublearc.org.
Education
Development Center—Newton,
Massachusetts
The Education Development Center has developed and evaluated
an online education package about FAS and related conditions;
collaborated with state agencies to identify and prepare a
state cadre of trainers; developed, facilitated, and evaluated
an online training-of-trainers (TOT) course to prepare state
trainers; and collaborated with state agencies to develop
a system for providing FAS awareness sessions in schools targeting
school staff and parents/caregivers. The content of the TOT
and awareness sessions includes a comprehensive review of
the physical, neurodevelopmental, and behavioral characteristics
of children with FAS; secondary disabilities; needed services;
family stressors and coping strategies; and what schools can
do with limited community resources. The TOT program was conducted
with more than 200 participants from 18 states and Guam. These
trainers then delivered school-based workshops in their respective
states. The training materials, including a how-to guide for
states, are now available on CD. For more information about
these materials and how to order them, please visit http://www.edc.org.
National
Indian Justice Center—Santa
Rosa, California
The National Indian Justice Center has developed and tested
a training curriculum that focuses on increasing awareness
of FAS and related conditions and encourages a cooperative
approach to referring and responding to persons with FAS within
the tribal community. The curriculum includes information
about the medical and psychological aspects of FAS and related
conditions. It was developed to target American Indian populations
and is designed for use by tribal court judges, law enforcement
personnel, social service workers, tribal leaders, medical
health providers, mental health providers, housing authority
personnel, teachers/educators, and non-tribal judicial system
personnel. The curriculum has been tested with more than 400
participants from tribes in California, Idaho, Oregon, and
Washington. For more information about these materials and
how to order them, please visit http://www.nijc.org.
Regional Centers
for the Education and Training of Medical and Allied Health
Students and Students and Professionals on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
and Other Prenatal Alcohol-Related Disorders
The purposes of the FAS Regional Training Centers are to (1)
develop, conduct, and analyze population-based surveys of
medical and allied health students and practitioners to assess
their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about diagnosis, treatment,
and prevention of FAS and other prenatal alcohol-related disorders
and to identify their perceived barriers to diagnosis, treatment,
and prevention, current practices, and resources needed to
improve current practice behaviors; (2) develop, implement,
and evaluate educational curricula for medical and allied
health students and practitioners that incorporate evidence-based
diagnostic guidelines for FAS and other prenatal alcohol-related
disorders; (3) disseminate curricula to audiences; and (4)
seek to have diagnostic guidelines and curricula incorporated
into the training curricula of medical and allied health schools
at the grantee’s university or college, other colleges
and universities throughout the region, and into the credentialing
requirements of professional boards.
FUNDED
PROJECTS
Meharry Medical College—Nashville,
Tennessee
Morehouse School of Medicine—Atlanta,
Georgia
Meharry Medical College is partnering with Morehouse School
of Medicine and Tennessee State University to develop the
Southeastern U.S. Educational Center for Prevention of Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome. At Morehouse Medical School, the program
will work closely with the new National Center for Primary
Care and its network of more than 150 clinics throughout the
southeast. Also, via a joint program in Allied Health at Meharry
and Tennessee State, contacts have been made with College
of Allied Health Deans throughout the region to enhance dissemination
of educational materials. The Meharry/Morehouse partnership
will disseminate the FAS curriculum among medical and allied
health professionals in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
University of Medicine and Dentistry
of New Jersey (UMDNJ)—Newark,
New Jersey
The NJ/New England Regional FAS Education & Training Center
is based in the New Jersey Medical School – UMDNJ in
the Departments of Preventive Medicine, Pediatrics and Psychiatry.
It is closely associated with the NJ state-funded FAS Diagnostic
Centers, one of which is also located in the New Jersey Medical
School. This gives the Education & Training Center direct
access to child developmental specialists and pediatricians,
allowing for practical assessment of strategies and materials
developed as part of the CDC educational network. Through
collaboration with the UMDNJ School of Allied Health Professionals,
the Center also has access to online web teaching (Web CT)
resources that will facilitate the development of materials
useful in outreach across the New England region. The state
of New Jersey has a number of other existing resources that
will enhance the development of the New Jersey Regional Training
Center. New Jersey convenes a state Task Force on FAS and
since 1988, New Jersey has regionalized Maternal and Child
Health Consortia that assist with the provision and coordination
of hospital and community-based maternal and child health
services.
St. Louis University School of Medicine—St.
Louis, Missouri
The Midwest Regional Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Training Center
is a collaboration among the Department of Community and Family
Medicine of the University of St. Louis Medical School, University
of Missouri-Columbia and the St. Louis Arc. Physician and
allied health practitioner training initiatives will cover
Missouri and 6 contiguous states. Highlights of the program
include: plans to audit curricula at medical schools in the
7-state area consortium; two-day train-the-trainer workshops
with nationally recognized FAS experts; televised conferences
and video-taped conference proceedings; a curriculum CD ROM;
and an FAS Speaker’s Bureau.
University of California at Los Angeles
School of Medicine—Los
Angeles, California
The UCLA Medical Allied Health Education on Fetal Alcohol
Exposure Center will establish community partnerships with
Kaiser Permanente, Harbor - UCLA County Hospital, Edelman
Mental Health Clinic, Greater Los Angeles VA Hospitals, Venice
Family Clinic, Betty Ford Center and Didi Hirsch Community
Mental Health Center. To disseminate the curriculum in diverse
academic settings, UCLA proposes the following study sites:
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Martin Luther King
- Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, UC Riverside,
UCSF, UCSD, UC Irvine, Loma Linda, and UCLA Extension. The
program will include a variety of innovative education experiences
in addition to classroom learning, such as videotapes and
audience response systems; individualized learning with Web-based
CD-ROM learning and written materials; and small group learning
opportunities that employ practicing with standardized patients
and discussing written case vignettes
Strategies for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Resources and Technical Assistance
Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD),
their families, and professionals who provide services to
them require information, resources, and training to reduce
the effects of FASD and to identify and implement effective
programs to enhance functioning. Children and adults living
with FASD are at high risk for a number of secondary conditions
including mental health problems, trouble with the law, inappropriate
sexual behavior, trouble living independently, trouble with
employment, and substance use and abuse problems. Development
of strategies to increase early diagnosis and treatment of
FASD can reduce and help manage these risks. Similarly, dissemination
of information and training on effective intervention strategies
to educators, social workers, legal/criminal justice workers,
and medical providers offers the potential to increase the
availability and provision of appropriate services and support
to people living with FASD.
FUNDED
PROJECTS
Black Hills State University (BHSU)
– Spearfish, South Dakota
The
goal of this project, begun in 2004, is to develop and/or
adapt, implement, and evaluate materials to educate professionals
working in school systems, social service agencies, court
systems, and public health service agencies about FASD. This
project targets South Dakota, including some of the state’s
Native American populations. BHSU will conduct the following
activities through this project:
Develop/adapt
culturally appropriate training materials for educators
working with K–8 students with FASD.
Develop/adapt
a culturally and linguistically appropriate FASD curriculum
to prepare K–12 teachers to teach children about alcohol
use, pregnancy, and FASD.
Develop/adapt
culturally appropriate training materials for juvenile justice
staff who work with young offenders with FASD.
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