Topic Area: Substance Exposed Infants

Community partner polls show that substance use continues to be a top area of concern in the Tri-state area. The Community Health Impact Plan of the Siouxland District Health Department and the local hospitals has identified the Maternal Health population as a community of focus, due to the steep increase in substance exposed infants reported since 2015. As Michelle Lewis shared during her presentation at the Growing Community Connections meeting, babies who were exposed to illicit substances in utero have reached alarming numbers over the past few years. Substance exposed infants in Siouxland averaged 14 per year from 2003 to 2008, and 22 per year from 2009 to 2014. Alarmingly, from 2015 to 2020, reports increased to an average of 77 substance exposed infants per year!

To address this pressing issue, the Maternal Substance Misuse Prevention Committee has been working to identify strategies to implement with medical providers and educational information to disseminate to community members. A free upcoming online training, sponsored by Iowa Children’s Justice and hosted by Siouxland District Health Department and Siouxland CARES, will be available for physicians, nurses, social workers, and all other health care providers on November 14^th from 12pm-1pm. This one-hour virtual training will be led by Dr. Chasnoff and will address identification and intervention for pregnant women at risk for substance use.  Interested parties may register here: https://bit.ly/39J545

Source For Siouxland values our partnership with Growing Community Connections! For more updates, check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SourceForSiouxland