Free Health for a Change webinar aims to help providers grow skills to help care for opioid exposed infants

Kentucky Health News

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky‘s next “Health for a Change” webinar is titled “Recognizing and Responding to Opioid Exposed Infants.”  It will be Wednesday, July 23, at 11 a.m. ET. Click here to register. Continuing education credits are available.

This free webinar will provide information about a comprehensive “continuum of care” plan for pregnant women and their infants affected by substance abuse, and will discuss how to use a trauma-informed approach to address the risks involved with the care of infants who have been exposed to opioids during pregnancy.

The webinar will also discuss nonjudgmental communication strategies, non-pharmacological strategies and how to have a safe and effective handoff to pediatricians.

Each year, an estimated 15% of infants are affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol or illicit drugs. In Kentucky, the rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome is higher than the national average.

The webinar will be led by Dr. Dawn Forbes, founder and CEO of NASCEND, a Louisville-based public-benefit organization that works to help infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome, caused by mothers using opioids during pregnancy.

According to a news release, NASCEND has “created an approach that has improved both immediate and long-term outcomes for substance-exposed infants and their families. Infants supported by its continuum of care are less likely to be admitted to the NICU and spend less time in the hospital.”