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

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is one of seven states awarded Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (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;
• Educating health care providers on FAS, alcohol exposure and reproductive risk factors for women of childbearing age;
• 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.