Nurturing families: One year pilot outcomes for a modified Parent Child Assistance Program in Australia.

Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) exposure during pregnancy is linked to serious adverse child outcomes, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP) supports women with problematic AOD use, who are pregnant or have young children, and are not effectively engaging with services. PCAP has been shown to reduce alcohol exposed pregnancies, promote AOD abstinence, increase employment and family planning and improve child outcomes.

Community Priority setting for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research in Australia.

Introduction: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). FASD research is a rapidly growing field that crosses multiple disciplines. To ensure research is relevant and meaningful for people living with FASD, their families, and the broader public there is a need to engage community members in setting priorities for research.

A reduction in reported alcohol use in pregnancy in Australian Aboriginal communities: a prevention campaign showing promise.

Objective: Aboriginal leaders in remote Western Australian communities with high rates of prenatal alcohol exposure invited researchers to evaluate the community-led Marulu foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) Prevention Strategy initiated in 2010.

Methods: The proportion of women reporting alcohol use during pregnancy to midwives was compared between 2008, 2010 and 2015. Initial midwife appointments were calculated by weeks of gestation.

School-based intervention to address self-regulation and executive functioning in children attending primary schools in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.

Executive functioning and self-regulation influence a range of outcomes across the life course including physical and mental health, educational success, and employment. Children prenatally exposed to alcohol or early life trauma (ELT) are at higher risk of impairment of these skills and may require intervention to address self-regulation deficits. Researchers partnered with the local Aboriginal health organization and schools to develop and pilot a manualized version of the Alert Program® in the Fitzroy Valley, north Western Australia, a region with documented high rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and ELT.

Predicting alcohol dependence treatment outcomes: a prospective comparative study of clinical psychologists versus 'trained' machine learning models.

Background And Aims: Clinical staff are typically poor at predicting alcohol dependence treatment outcomes. Machine learning (ML) offers the potential to model complex clinical data more effectively. This study tested the predictive accuracy of ML algorithms demonstrated to be effective in predicting alcohol dependence outcomes, compared with clinical judgement and traditional linear regression.

Has a national policy guideline influenced the practice of raising the topic of alcohol and breastfeeding by maternal healthcare practitioners?

Globally, the public health recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding to the first 6 months of life is not being achieved by many low- and middle-income countries. Many factors have been determined to affect the early cessation of breastfeeding; however, little attention has been paid to the role of alcohol, an increasingly favoured commodity, particularly in these Westernised nations. Maternal healthcare practitioners play a pivotal role in a woman's breastfeeding journey by providing timely advice that can help support continued breastfeeding.

A systematic review of prevention interventions to reduce prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in indigenous communities.

Background: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a preventable, lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. FASD negatively impacts individual Indigenous communities around the world. Although many prevention interventions have been developed and implemented, they have not been adequately evaluated.

The provision of alcohol and breastfeeding information by maternal health practitioners in the Australian setting.

Background: In the 2009 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking, a guideline specific to lactating women was included. For the first time the effect of alcohol at this important developmental stage was nationally and internationally acknowledged.

Aims: To determine the degree to which maternal health practitioners adopted an Australian national policy guideline (Guideline 4B) on alcohol and breastfeeding into their everyday health practice and the factors associated with adoption.