141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

285364
Preventing substance exposed pregnancies across the life course: A collaborative approach in baltimore city

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Jennifer R. Epstein, MS , Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore, MD
Rebecca S. Dineen, MS , Maternal and Child Health, Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore, MD
Christine Trenton, LCSW-C, CAC-AD , Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Baltimore, MD
Paula Stauffer, MHS , Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, Baltimore, MD
Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, MD, MPH , Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Baltimore, MD
Tobacco smoke—including maternal exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy—accounts for 10 – 12% of prematurity, low birth weight, and fetal death (DHHS 2004). B'more for Healthy Babies, Baltimore's citywide strategy to improve birth outcomes, identified substance abuse as one of 11 high-impact areas that adversely affects birth outcomes. In 2011, the Baltimore City Health Department and Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems formed a collaborative on preventing substance exposed pregnancies (PSEP). The PSEP Collaborative consists of city agencies, treatment programs, medical systems, and academic institutions who had never worked together before. The Collaborative developed a strategic vision; reviewed the literature; examined existing programs, resources, and policies; assessed feasibility and impact of interventions; and wrote a strategic plan. The vision of the PSEP Collaborative is for all women in Baltimore City to have healthy, substance-free pregnancies. The PSEP strategy applies a life course model that intervenes on four levels: policy, provider systems, community, and individual. Key objectives include integrating substance Screening Brief Intervention Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) into family planning clinics and OB practices; preventing unplanned pregnancy among substance-abusing women through access to contraception and reproductive counseling at substance treatment facilities; preventing secondhand household exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy and the infant's first year of life; and addressing gaps in data collection for PSEP strategies. This work brought together non-traditional partners to develop a cross-sector strategy. The process used demonstrates how a cross-agency public/private collaborative can define a problem and develop a joint strategy.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Program planning
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with building a cross-agency collaborative. List the four levels of interventions used to design a program plan. Define the process used to develop a collaborative approach between public and private entities

Keywords: Collaboration, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have coordinated multiple cross agency coalitions focused on the social determinants of maternal and child health. My interests are in engaging non-traditional partners in strategic and comprehensive program planning.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.