Missouri Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Rural Awareness and Prevention Project (MOFASRAPP)

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Prevention & Awareness

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a constellation of growth, neurobehavioral, and physical problems caused by exposure to alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is not a clinical diagnosis, but an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur from prenatal alcohol exposure. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral, and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications.

The consequences of FAS and FASD are permanent, yet are 100% preventable if women who are pregnant or might become pregnant abstain from alcohol. For every 1,000 births, it is estimated that one to two children have FAS and six to ten children have FASD. In Missouri, this translates to 79 to 158 children born annually with FAS and far more with FASD.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is one of seven states awarded FAS prevention funding from September 30, 2003 through September 29, 2008 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These grant funds support the Missouri Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Rural Awareness and Prevention Project (MOFASRAPP). Other entities involved in the project are the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, the University of Missouri - Columbia, and St. Louis Arc.

Missouri's FAS project (MOFASRAPP) involves 71 "rural counties" along and south of Interstate 70, excluding the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Kansas City. MOFASRAPP's strategies focus on:

• Reducing alcohol-exposed pregnancies in at-risk women ages 18-44 through interventions titled Healthy Balance and Self-Guided Change. Click here to view the Self-Guided poster: "Is your drinking getting out of hand?" or click here to view the Self-Guided poster: "After a night of drinking, do you ever have regrets?";
• Educating health care providers on FAS, alcohol exposure and reproductive risk factors for women of childbearing age (12-44);
• Establishing an FAS Center to provide diagnostic, referral and follow-up services for individuals suspected of having an alcohol-related condition and their families; and
• Enhancing existing surveillance systems to monitor the prevalence of alcohol consumption and contraceptive practices in women of childbearing age, and the incidence of FAS.

This project is supported by DHSS and CDC Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Grant/Cooperative Agreement #U84/CCU723301.

For further information about FAS, FASD or MOFASRAPP, please contact us.