April 9 is National Alcohol Screening Day – a call to make screening and brief intervention (SBI) part of your routine practice. Social workers are an integral part of healthcare and should take a leading role in primary prevention of risky drinking among women.
Social workers are needed on the front lines of a growing women’s health issue: risky drinking. Women’s rates of deaths tied to alcohol increased 85 percent from 1999 to 2017, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That’s compared to a 35 percent increase among men and a 51 percent overall increase in deaths tied to alcohol. What’s more, research also shows that women who drink alcohol face a higher risk of...
September is FASD Awareness Month, an opportunity to highlight social work’s critical role in participating in FASD assessment and referrals, providing FASD-informed services, and advocating for individuals and families living with FASDs. But it is also a reminder and a call to action: Primary prevention of alcohol use during pregnancy can reduce the prevalence of FASDs. Social workers are encouraged to put prevention into practice by screening clients for risky alcohol use,...