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of FASD State Coordinators
National Association of FASD State Coordinators
To support state-based efforts, the FASD Center for Excellence helped establish
the National Association of FASD State Coordinators (NAFSC) in 2003. NAFSC's mission
is to promote prevention, treatment, and care systems for FASD, nationwide, through
collaboration with systems within the FASD State Coordinators' respective states
and among member states. The group seeks to:
- Provide information, resources, and support to individuals involved in FASD efforts
at the state level.
- Identify and share models for FASD prevention and treatment.
- Establish and maintain a national identity for FASD.
- Advocate for all states to have a designated FASD Coordinator.
- Educate families, providers, researchers, and policymakers on FASD.
- Establish partnerships on a national and grassroots level.
Twenty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and Navajo Nation have officially
designated FASD Coordinators. To see if your state has a coordinator you can check
the official roster
for NAFSC 
.
Recent State Activities
At each NAFSC teleconference or meeting, members provide updates of prevention,
intervention, and legislative activities related to FASD in their states. NAFSC
members reported the following activities as part of the February 2013 meeting:
- Planned and provided trainings on FASD for family support group members, home visitation
staff, tribal community agency staff, counties, judges and judicial staff, and the
community at-large.
- Convened statewide task forces (or other statewide groups charged with planning
and/or oversight of activities related to FASD).
- Task force activity noted in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and
Texas.
- Oversaw projects to:
- Revise FASD State Plans
- Provide screening and brief intervention services to women
through Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics
- Conduct a monthly workshop for Club COSTA (Circle of Support for Teens and Adults
with FASD)
- Support a mobile media awareness campaign via Facebook; included an FASD awareness
poster
- Form a workgroup to address statewide FASD diagnostic capacity
- Work with State Department of Education officials to incorporate information on
FASD into training webinars
- Use a grant to author a paper on the underutilization of women’s treatment
services and how this relates to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
- Complete a needs assessment and SCOT analysis on approaches to the training of trainers
o Hold statewide conferences on FASD for professionals and the public.
- Hold weekly workshops at various community locations on the dangers of drinking
while pregnant o Plan a pilot program focused on incorporating FASD into medical
school and residents’ programs
- Develop a plan to start a Drug Endangered Children Alliance
- Train staff on screening women in Residential SUD for FASD
- Provide contracts that encourage and support local, community-based FASD prevention
and intervention projects statewide
- Implement FASD prevention efforts in community-based interagency contracts using
the TACE alcohol screening tool at an OB/GYN clinic
- Meet with high-level policymakers to address policy barriers related to screening
and brief intervention
- Providing informational resources on proposed legislation that requires doctors
to provide an information packet to pregnant women and for patients to sign off
on receiving it
- Hold various FASD awareness day efforts including FASD trainings; distribution
of FASD table tents and napkins to restaurants and alcohol-serving establishments;
media campaigns; distribution of information at health care centers, schools, and
health fairs; and FASD Awareness walks.
- Sought funding through grants and proposals.
Review NAFSC Quarterly State updates.
NAFSC Quarterly State updatesal Process for Nominating a State Coordinator
Individuals interested in formalizing a Coordinator position in their state must submit a letter with the following information in support of their designation:
- Information about the statewide Task Force (if applicable).
- Information on the particular division, agency, and department that the designated
individual works for and their job responsibilities as they relate to FASD.
- Discussion of why it is important to have the identified individual designated in
this role, including benefits to the state.
- Contact information for the designated individual.
This information should be submitted to Jerome Romero, chair of NAFSC. A sample outline for a
Letter designating
a state coordinator is available. Mr. Romero is the New Mexico State Coordinator
and has served as chair of NAFSC since its inception in 2003. He may be contacted for additional
information. In addition,
a document outlining how Coordinators' positions were established is
available.
Contact Information for NAFSC Chair and Vice Chair
Jerome Romero (NAFSC Chair)
Principal Investigator
University of New Mexico
Statewide Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Program
2650 Yale Boulevard, SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Phone: 505-925-2302
Fax: 505-925-2313
E-mail: aggie@unm.edu
Margo Singer, MPA (NAFSC Vice Chair)
Addictions Program Specialist II
New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services
1450 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203
Phone: 518-457-4384
Fax: 518-485-9480
E-mail: margosinger@oasas.ny.gov
Breakdown of Where Coordinators are Seated
Alcohol and Drug Abuse: CA, ME, NY, OH, PA, SD, WI
Health (Public, Maternal, Child, Family, Senior): AL, DC, HI, IN, KS, MD, MI,
NJ
Mental/Behavioral Health: AK, MS, Navajo Nation, WA, WV
Mental Health/Substance Abuse/Developmental Disabilities: NC
Prevention of Developmental Disabilities: TX
Other/Non-profit: AZ, FL, IL, KY, MA
Universities: CO, NM
NAFSC Special Projects and Subcommittees
Since 2008, current and past state Coordinators have contributed their time and skills to the work of subcommittees. Some notable accomplishments of subcommittees include:
- The Mission and Vision Statements Subcommittee developed the mission statement for NAFSC.
- The Web Site/Brochure Subcommittees agreed on a distinctive logo for all NAFSC communications and made recommendations on what information should be included on the NAFSC web page.
- The NAFSC Orientation Subcommittee recommended materials for an orientation packet for all new members.
- The Pregnancy Kit Labeling Subcommittee asked their NAFSC colleagues to support this effort by sending out letters to targeted drug companies. In November 2011, they asked for renewed attention to this issue—giving NAFSC colleagues a list of potential groups (e.g., FASD task forces and/or coalitions, advisory boards, clinics, support groups) to tap for assistance in the letter-writing campaign.
- The Airlines Subcommittee worked to engage US-based airlines that serve alcohol in flight by requesting, via a focused letter-writing campaign, that they include a statement about alcohol use and pregnancy wherever in-flight alcoholic beverages are discussed. In June 2010, Subcommittee member Margo Singer received a letter from Southwest Airlines stating that “Effective July 1, 2010, Southwest Airlines will add the…U.S. Surgeon General’s guidance to its onboard Inflight menu, its web site mentions of our onboard beverage service, and to the service pages of our Inflight magazine, Spirit.”
- The Primary Care Subcommittee compiled a list of groups that have an outreach-to-providers component (e.g., the American Medical Association and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) and gathered online information on FASD that is current, easy to download, and appropriate for providers to share with patients.
- The Non-Profit Status Subcommittee was tasked with determining how/whether to establish non-profit status for NAFSC in order to maintain its existence should the Center’s funding come to an end. Members shared their personal experiences and discussed non-profit arrangements with other knowledgeable individuals and organizations.
- The text4baby Subcommittee approached the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (NHMHBC) and SAMHSA about including more content related to drinking alcohol and pregnancy in their 9-month cycle of healthy-pregnancy-related texts. Subcommittee members created text messages for inclusion in the package of messages sent to pregnant women in the text4baby program and submitted them to NHMHBC.
- The group also has plans to form an SBIRT Learning Community to address concerns and challenges (e.g., low reimbursements, provider unwillingness to file) related to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement for SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, referral and treatment).
In addition to current subcommittee work, NAFSC members have also:
- Mentored states without FASD Coordinators.
Provided trainings on the benefits of having and how to establish a statewide FASD Coordinator.
- Reached out to the Center-affiliated groups to incorporate birth mothers and FASD self-advocates in work within their states.
- Created documents to support work related to FASD (i.e. resource list, reporting templates).
How Having an FASD State Coordinator and Participating in NAFSC Benefit States
Having an FASD State Coordinator:
- Provides a dedicated position to lead and focus FASD efforts.
- Provides a single point-of-contact to work with families and professionals on FASD
issues.
- Provides someone to represent the state on issues related to FASD, present on FASD
at conferences, implement statewide projects, and lead general awareness-raising
activities.
Participating in NAFSC:
- Provides opportunities to share knowledge, expertise, experiences, and resources
among states on FASD funding, policy, prevention strategies and related activities.
- Provides opportunities to obtain feedback on different training materials and prevention
and treatment curricula.
- Provides information on the many ways state FAS programs are conducted and maintained.
- Offers insight on current research and knowledge of the prevention of FASD, best
practices, and potential funding opportunities.
- Fosters "out of the box" thinking on strategies for identifying funding resources,
obtaining legislation to promote FASD awareness, and identifying opportunities for
service delivery system enhancements.
- Provides mentoring support from a network of peers facing similar challenges.
- Provides a list of people who can act as consultants and advocates for implementing
policy.
- Helps to validate work to state governments and to bring fresh ideas to enhance
work.
- Provides information useful for developing long-range plans (e.g., how other states
use grant funds to enhance their efforts).
- Provides information on successful program efforts that can be replicated.