FASD Training, Outreach Projects Expand with Renewal Funding

Over the past three years, the Great Lakes FASD Regional Training Center (GLFRTC), a seven-state project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and based at the Department of Family Medicine (DFM), has trained over 5000 healthcare providers to better assess and treat fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

In September 2011, GLFRTC received renewal funding to continue those efforts—and also find ways to incorporate screening and brief intervention services into primary care.

This project, along with several others led by DFM Associate Scientist Georgiana Wilton, PhD, clearly shows how the DFM is a leading advocate for FASD prevention, identification, and treatment. 

That’s critical in Wisconsin, a state that leads the nation in most alcohol indicators, including drinking and binge drinking by women of childbearing age—placing it at high risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies.

Maximizing FASD Training for Professionals and Students

In its first three years, GLFRTC trained a total of 5250 students and medical/allied health professionals—a fivefold increase over the project’s original projections.

It accomplished this by establishing a 30-hour FASD educator certificate program, the first of its kind in the country. “Using this model, we were able to maximize our distributive power through certified trainers in approximately 20 states and several countries,” Dr. Wilton explained.

The project also infused FASD education into the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) medical student curriculum, and the DFM residency program’s community medicine rotation.

“The CDC looked on that as one of our biggest success stories, since one of the project goals was to include FASD training into as many medical school curricula as possible,” Dr. Wilton said.

In September 2011, the CDC awarded GLFRTC $300,000 per year for three years to continue its training activities and develop a plan for incorporating SBI services into primary care.

“Data from our training center, and previous training centers, clearly indicate that clinicians want the tools to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome—and we have those tools,” Dr. Wilton explained.

“In fact, a model previously tested at the DFM shows that offering SBI services to this population reduces the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies by over 80%. Now, our challenge is to implement that.”

Expanding FASD Outreach in Wisconsin

Dr. Wilton also leads the Wisconsin FASD Treatment Outreach Project (WTOP), a long-running program funded by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Bureau of Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery.

The project provides FASD training for healthcare professionals in urban and rural Wisconsin, offers clinical outreach services for at-risk women and children, and provides technical support for clients and the professionals who serve them.

Dr. Wilton brought the project with her when she joined the DFM in 2002. It’s an offshoot of the Family Empowerment Network, which will be celebrating its 20^th year at FASD Awareness Day on September 9, 2012.

Last year, through a collaboration with the UW Department of Pediatrics and GLFRTC/WTOP medical director David Wargowski, MD, WTOP reinstated outreach clinics for adults and children at risk for FASD.

DFM residents play a key role in those clinics: they received clinical FASD training from Dr. Wargowski, and performed actual assessments with clients referred by alcohol treatment partners.

“This model allows us to include adults who might not otherwise have the funds for assessment,” Dr. Wilton said. “We can see patients each month this way, instead of just one outreach clinic per year.”

In October 2011, WTOP received a renewal grant to continue its work. Next year, there are plans to establish a certificate program to address minimum competencies in gender-responsive FASD treatment, and further develop the Northwestern Wisconsin FASD Task Force to address the FASD service gap in this rural region.

Preventing Adolescent OWI Recidivism

Dr. Wilton’s team was invited last year to participate in a Bureau of Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery-funded project to evaluate how well Wisconsin’s Intoxicated Driver Program (IDP) addresses adolescents who drink and drive.

Feedback from IDP assessment training programs suggests that current practices may not adequately meet the needs of adolescent offenders. This can lead to them receiving inappropriate referrals for services, placing them at risk for re-offending.

The team is collaborating with the UW Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies (PDAS) to analyze current practices, identify which ones are most effective for adolescents, and recommend improvements.

The project builds on Dr. Wilton’s FASD expertise and her previous work providing legal and ethical training for IDP assessors. “Coming from a background in rehabilitation psychology, we see some of the same cognitive limitations in the adolescent brain,” she explained.

“We don’t have a strong infrastructure for adolescent treatment in Wisconsin, and we see where the alcohol treatment programs struggle because of this.”