St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Receives Grant
June 1, 2009 by Editor
Filed under Healthy Happenings
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (SJMO) received a grant of $6,000 from the Michigan Department of Community Health to develop an alcohol prevention and intervention program to help Hispanic women in Pontiac have healthy babies. The funding was granted by Michigan’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Prevention and Intervention Grants.
The program is aimed at decreasing the number of pregnant Hispanic women who drink alcohol and to identify and diagnose individuals who are at risk for FASD.
SJMO routinely educates its pregnant patients about the dangers of alcohol and other substance use during pregnancy. With the grant, SJMO medical care staff and human service professionals will add screening and early intervention for at-risk women to the education component. The grant also requires the collection and managing of information and data regarding Hispanic women’s alcohol use.
Hispanic women patients to be targeted in the FASD program are those who have indicated risk associated with alcohol use. Some risk factors include long duration of residence in the U.S., separation from family in their homeland (mostly Mexico for Pontiac residents), having a partner who drinks heavily, lower educational level among Hispanics, higher rates of poverty and limited access to both physical and mental health services.
Community agencies leading the project are: SJMO’s Clinica Santa Teresa, Centro Multicultural La Familia and Healthy Start/Healthy Families Oakland. Founded by SJMO in 2005, Clinica Santa Teresa offers pre-natal care and multi-disciplinary support for pregnant Hispanic women. Centro Multicultural La Familia is an Hispanic-lead human service agency that delivers critical pre-natal outreach and wrap-around services to Hispanic women in Pontiac. Healthy Start/Healthy Families Oakland is an award-winning, fully credentialed program that provides intensive home visitation services to 250 vulnerable families and infants and young children throughout Oakland County.
Included in the program will be motivational interviewing, a style of interaction with clients that assesses readiness and provides support for behavior change.
About 260 Hispanic women each year are expected to be served by the program.
For more information about the program, contact Melissa Freel, director of Healthy Start, St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, 248.858.6942.
