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Is Perinatal Substance Abuse An Issue In San Luis Obispo County?

51% of the initial 253 women in San Luis Obispo County assessed for Perinatal Substance Abuse were positive for use of tobacco and/or alcohol in the month before they knew they were pregnant.
Of those women, 39% continued to use drugs during pregnancy, with the main drug of choice being alcohol.
Local estimates indicate more than 260 drug-exposed infants are born in this county each year.

The Perinatal Outreach Initiative has been influenced by the work of Dr. Ira Chasnoff.

Reasons For Hope

If a woman enters treatment and stops using alcohol by the third trimester, mental retardation associated with fetal alcohol syndrome can be prevented.
If a child is drug-exposed, early intervention can make a significant difference in the child’s ultimate development and academic outcome.
For every $1 spent in prenatal care and drug treatment for the pregnant woman, $2.70 will be saved in medical care for the infant in the first year of life.

The First 5 Commission of San Luis Obispo County has identified Perinatal Substance Abuse as a priority area of concern in its most recent Strategic Plan. In 2003, the Commission provided $15,000 in mini-grant funding to convene local policy makers and department heads around the topic of Perinatal Substance Abuse with Dr. Ira Chasnoff from the Children’s Research Triangle in Chicago (Please see attached Bio.)

Some of the outcomes from the Commission’s investment include:

Establishment of a countywide system for health care providers to identify Perinatal Substance Abuse and refer to existing services.
Activities that promote the prevention of perinatal substance abuse
Continued data collection on the rate of substance abuse by pregnant women

The Commission provided an additional $100,000 for continuation of the Perinatal Substance Abuse Initiative from FY 2007 to FY 2009.

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2007-2009 Direct Service Funded Programs

All Funded Initiatives July 2007 to June 2011