Friday, April 26, 2024
4/26/2024
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) serves as the nation’s leading group of professionals providing health care for women. A nonprofit membership organization; that focuses on women’s health care advocacy, clinical practice standards, and education. The services provided by ACOG reach beyond our 60,000 members to address the patient population served by our practitioners and the general public. The overall purpose of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Prevention Program is to educate and support clinicians in reducing prenatal alcohol and other substance use exposure among their patients through implementing screening and brief intervention and referral to treatment. The ob-gyn members of the ACOG FASD Champion Workgroup will serve as ambassadors and assist in the program’s efforts by engaging and educating their peers regarding the prevalence of prenatal alcohol and substance use exposure, the effects such as FASDs, and the effectiveness of alcohol SBIRT. Through innovative and collaborative work with the Champions and our national partners, we will expand, leverage and develop resources; and needed supports to improve services and access to care to those people at risk of prenatal alcohol exposure and other substance use. These relationships are vital to the success of ACOG’s programming and we will continue to leverage them to ensure the success of this proposal. ACOG recognizes that the harms attributable to FASD are complex and convinced that promoting awareness in tandem with evidence-based practices can result in sustained change. Sharing evidence-based information increases knowledge and impacts interventions, thus changing how providers care for their patients. Although many of the necessary tools are now in place to support providers in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), the universal application of this technique has yet to be broadly implemented by ob-gyns. The ob-gyn has a unique role in screening and intervention with patients of reproductive age; women often utilize their ob-gyn as their primary care physician including behavioral and psychosocial discussion within routine care. The annual well-woman visit provides a great opportunity for ob-gyns to evaluate for prenatal alcohol or other substance use exposure and offer resources to parents and families affected by FASDs. In working toward that mission, the ACOG Program will focus on achieving the following outcomes: • Demonstrated collaboration between clinical and public health partners • Increased use of evidence-based information and resources • Increased identification of members’ knowledge, current practices, and organizational needs • Improved capacity of state and local networks to reach affected populations with relevant, evidence-based messaging and services • Increased knowledge related to the risks of prenatal alcohol and other substance use • Increased integration of evidence-based strategies into clinical practice and non-clinical settings • Increased incorporation of prenatal alcohol and substance use content related to clinical recommendations and organizational policies into organizational resources, student curricula, or certification requirements • Increased linkage of people at risk of prenatal alcohol and other substance use as well as families living with FASDs to local services, treatment, support groups, prevention programs, and statewide services
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
