2022 Year in Review

 

SACCounty Healthy Beginnings promotes a healthy and safe environment for Sacramento County’s families and children through outreach and education for professionals and community members, addressing perinatal substance use prevention and intervention.

 
 

Live and Online Professional Training

Social Media

Learning and Idea Sharing

 
 
 
 

Professional Training

SACCounty Healthy Beginnings’ professional training program enhanced the knowledge and skills of physicians, nurses, substance abuse treatment professionals, mental health professionals and other providers who deliver services to pregnant and parenting women to create a continuum of substance use and misuse prevention and intervention across the perinatal period and the span of childhood. In addition, we promoted community knowledge and decrease community stigma regarding perinatal substance use and misuse.

SACCounty Healthy Beginnings’ training programs have created an arc from prevention to intervention, training providers in validated techniques for screening pregnant women for substance use, providing brief interventions in the prenatal setting, conducting appropriate referral of women for treatment, and providing gender-specific treatment for pregnant and parenting women.

We conducted numerous webinars and live disciplinary trainings ranging from the ethics of prevention to dispelling misinformation regarding substance use in pregnancy.

 

2022 Webinars

  • Cultural Competency: The Ethics of Prevention

  • Identification of the Woman At Risk For Substance Use in Pregnancy

  • Trauma-Informed Care for the Pregnant Woman At Risk for Substance Use

  • The Neurobiology of Maternal-Infant Attachment as Affected by Perinatal Substance Use

  • Breastfeeding by Parenting Women With a History of Substance Use

  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Treatment Approaches

  • Building Resilience in the Face of Trauma

 

  • Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome vs. Neurobehavioral Deficits in the Newborn: The Differential Diagnosis

  • Misdiagnosis and Missed Diagnoses in Children With Prenatal Substance Exposure

  • Myth Busters: Combatting Misinformation Regarding Substance Use in Pregnancy Register here

  • Putting it all Together: Ensuring Best Outcomes for Families and Children Affected by Perinatal Substance Use Register here

 

2022 Live Multidisciplinary Training Programs

  • Substance Use in Pregnancy: Mother and Newborn

  • Drugs, Alcohol, Pregnancy, and the Vulnerable Child

 

  • Special training session for nurses

 
 
 
 

Social Media

SACCounty Healthy Beginnings leveraged the power of social media to launch prevention campaigns and bring reliable, science-based information to the Sacramento community and beyond. We brought trusted resources into people’s homes and removed the stigma around general substance abuse difficulties and substance use and misuse during pregnancy. Using social media, we enhanced the public’s, professionals’ and policy makers’ readiness to learn, to accept information, and to change behavior, policy and practice to support alcohol- and drug-free pregnancies.

Our social media channel mix included Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (for housing video), and TikTok. The response to and engagement with our social media content and campaign efforts was astounding.

 

682,081 total impressions

211,279 total video views

38,442 total engagements

 

4,544 total social media fans

3,613 link clicks

1,131 total received messages

 
If you're a parent or a teacher of a child with Prenatal Substance Exposure, we're glad to share strategies with you to help them manage daily activities, whether at home or in the #classroom. Our article, "Behavior Management Hints," can b
Preparing for the #birth of a new baby will usually bring with it constraints, sacrifices, different emotions, and the constant feeling of being out of your comfort zone. Embrace those changes; they mean you're growing as a woman and as a person. Pri
What do you know about #NeonatalWithdrawalSyndrome (NAS)? Caring for a baby experiencing #withdrawal can be extremely difficult, taking a physical, mental, and emotional toll. ​ ​Drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine, and #marijuana also can cause the
According to the Sacramento County DA Crime Lab, 98% of street drugs are fake, and 99% contain deadly fentanyl. Even if you're getting your drugs from a trusted source or friend, chances are they don't know what's in them. #StreetDrugsKill. Learn mo
Nicotine in #pregnancy isn't bad because nicotine patches or nicotine gum can be recommended to pregnant smokers: True or False? FALSE. Patches and gums can be detrimental to #pregnant smokers. They are prescribed to pregnant women sometimes because
How can alcohol affect the growth and development of your #baby? Alcohol use in the first three months of pregnancy can cause the baby to have abnormal facial features. Problems with development, which may lead to low #birthweight and irregular #br
The Press Democrat reports that in recent years, the total number of calls to California’s Poison Control Centers for cannabis exposure among children under 6 years old increased from 330 calls statewide in 2018 to 791 calls in 2021, a 140% inc
#AlcoholAwarenessMonth is the perfect time to learn about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). FASD is the name given to a group of physical, behavioral, and intellectual disabilities of a newborn that are the direct result of drinking alcohol whi
 
 
 

Learning and Idea Sharing

Throughout 2022, SACCounty Healthy Beginnings provided content and resources for the community, hosted Q&A sessions, and conducted online surveys to gather information about the relevant issues impacting our community’s lives and health. A great example is our upcoming live webinar called Myth Busters: Combatting Misinformation Regarding Substance Use in Pregnancy (there’s still time to register!). You can have input into the issues the webinar will cover by completing the survey here.

Our website Toolkit provided visitors with different multimedia experiences and learning formats to help them gain a better understanding and more knowledge about alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, managing children’s difficult behavior, breastfeeding during pregnancy, scholarly articles, and more.

Learning is a collaborative process, and people learn best when the content is timely, engaging, non-threatening, and empowering. We are proud and honored to have had the opportunity in 2022 to work with the professionals in the Sacramento community and the public.