This Alcohol Awareness Month, social workers can dispel common myths about drinking, including the belief that there is a safe time, amount, or amount of alcohol to drink while pregnant. For a healthy pregnancy, avoiding alcohol and other substances is the safest thing to do. And if a client is drinking while pregnant, every day counts. The sooner the drinking stops, the better for the baby.

January is Birth Defects Awareness Month, a call to action for social workers to share a key message: for a healthy pregnancy, it is safest to avoid alcohol, smoking, and other recreational drugs. 

This Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Month, social workers can deepen their understanding of FASDs and how to prevent them. A key tool in FASD prevention is universal alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), an evidence-based, highly effective modality for evoking a client’s motivation to address risky substance use.