1. Ensure that FASD identification and diagnostic services are accessible to all Minnesota families.
Currently, there are barriers for clinical settings to provide FASD diagnosis. Clinics are plagued with low reimbursement rates and limited capacity to provide multidisciplinary and comprehensive analysis of individuals who have prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Goals:
- Establish sustainable reimbursment rates for clinics that provide FASD diagnosis.
- Work with the state of Minnesota to determine incidence and prevalence of FASD.
- Implement an ongoing statewide forum of FASD competent clinicians to improve the quality and consistency of FASD diagnosis.
- Create awareness of FASD as a mental health disorder, as well as a physical disorder.
2. FASD information and content is integrated into professional training in order to ensure providers have knowledge and capacity to serve individuals with an FASD.
Professionals, providers and caregivers who work with children and adults often lack the skills and understanding to provide appropriate and quality service to those with an FASD. Caregivers and foster parents often do not have the resources and capacity to care for children with behavioral and cognitive challenges.
Goals:
- Improve outcomes for children in foster care settings by providing FASD education to caregivers in order to improve stability.
- Ensure that professionals who work in the chemical dependency field have knowledge and capacity to meet the needs of adolescents and adults with an FASD or prenatal exposure to alcohol.
3. Parents and caregivers are supported and valued during their journey of raising children with an FASD.
Raising children with special needs is often emotionally and financially stressful on a family.
Goals:
- Ensure that the rate of adoption subsidy is an incentive for parents and caregivers to create permanency for a child, not a disincentive.
- Ensure that functional support for individuals with an FASD is provided by the State. (PCA Alternatives)
4. Schools and communities identify, understand and accept individuals with an FASD.
Children spend a tremendous amount of time in a school setting. For children with an FASD, this experience can be overwhelming due to their cognitive and behavioral challenges.
Goals:
- Integrate prenatal alcohol screening into early childhood education programs around MN.
- Work with school districts to identify and support specific professionals to serve as an FASD liaison, to identify effective ways to improve educational outcomes for children with an FASD.
- Work collaboratively with communities to prevent future incidence of prenatal exposure to alcohol.
5. There is adequate state funding for all aspects of FASD prevention and support.
Currently, The Minnesota Department of Health provides $1, 679, 562.00 to be facilitated by MOFAS to provide FASD public awareness/prevention, diagnosis, professional education/training and intervention and family support. With an alarming number of 8,500 babies born in Minnesota each year (Centers for Disease Control 2006) and a cost associated with treating FASD each year in Minnesota at $131,000,000.00 (L. Burd &R. Hurwood, 2004). The amount allocated does not nearly cover the costs of this disability.
Goal:
- Sustain current amount of FASD funding allocated by the Minnesota Department of Health.
