LDAT Spotlight: Condobolin Healthy Pregnancy Project
Condobolin is a small town of around 4000 people, located in Central West NSW along the Lachlan River.
The Condobolin Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) has been operating in the community since 2021, and the Condobolin Healthy Pregnancy Project is its fourth Community Action Plan (CAP).
Through it, the LDAT connected with local young women who were pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding, providing education to reduce the risk of alcohol exposure to their babies, which can cause foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
The challenge
The Healthy Pregnancy Project was created following consultation between local services.
“The project came about after a meeting with the community health nurse and baby health nurse, identified the issue of young women using alcohol and other drugs (AOD) while pregnant,” said Heather Blackley from Central West Family Support Group Inc.
According to Fiona Skipworth, Executive Officer for Central West Family Support Group Inc., her organisation, which has a focus on targeted early intervention, was already seeing the issue and agreed with the assessment made by the local nurses.
“AOD has been a major crisis over the last five to six years,” Fiona explained.
“There are more issues with children starting school and not being diagnosed [with FASD], falling through cracks.”
Because of their connection to the community, these local orgs – who together form the backbone of the Local Drug Action Team – understand that FASD isn’t just limited to a certain demographic, it affects a wide range of people.
“Anyone can suffer from FASD, it doesn’t matter who you are. At the end of the day, we’re all humans,” noted Ros Patton – Project Officer for Community Builders at Central West Family Support Group Inc.
The response
The Condobolin LDAT designed a program to target young mothers, local health professionals and bring together service providers to help support families.
“We took [the consultation] on board, spoke to Kasey (Regional Community Development Manager at the Alcohol and Drug Foundation) and we started the FASD program. It blossomed – we hit the nail on the head – and we connected with the community. The target group found it really easy to connect with other mothers who had lots in common,” explained Heather.
“When we looked for guest speakers for our workshops, we found there was a NOFASD team in Orange (a town a couple of hours away). Hopefully, they will be able to do assessments for us in future, which is a big bonus that came out of program. We asked them: what are the main issues, the main things to talk to young mums about?”
“We used the LDAT Alcohol and Pregnancy Toolkit to start us off. It was a sounding board to write the program,” Fiona said.
“Then to develop even more info and knowledge, we pulled from NOFASD Australia and other health programs. Heather also built a great relationship with the local chemist and nurse who shared our information.”
Partnering with NOFASD Australia, the LDAT delivered two workshops in Condobolin – one for community service workers and one for women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding.
A series of 12 weekly peer support group meetings for storytelling and engaging were delivered between August and November 2024 to young mothers. The LDAT also hosted a NOFASD Services Expo and a street stall in Condobolin, outside the local pharmacy.
Each session had healthcare professionals and service providers in attendance – such as nurses, pharmacists, GPs, case managers and early intervention services – so relevant, accurate and localised information was delivered every time.
To help with the education sessions, the LDAT purchased the What Mummy Does, Baby Does model, which uses coloured dye to show how substances move through the mother’s body into the baby.
To encourage the young mothers to attend for the full 12 weeks, the LDAT gave them gift packs, including merchandise from NOFASD Australia.
At the end of the program, each mum also received a hamper basket with goods from local businesses, to congratulate them on finishing the course.
The Healthy Pregnancy Project was successful in reaching young mothers who weren’t already connected with the local services.
“The mums who came through were the ones who don’t usually walk through our service. It’s not just the mums we see all the time; they’re from different walks of life. They get a chance to talk to other mums, it’s a group effect,” Fiona observed.
“We also talk about how it’s dad’s responsibility too, alcohol can affect the sperm. It’s not just on mum.”
The progress
Overall, the program was attended by 16 community service workers and 17 women who were pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding.
The Services Expo attracted over 20 attendees and the street stall engaged 57 people from the community.
In the evaluation survey, 90% of participants knew more about the harms associated with AOD use during pregnancy and breastfeeding and 80% reported increased confidence to engage and have meaningful conversations with other women about these harms.
As a result of attending the storytelling peer support group, 80% of women felt more equipped to seek help.
And the impact of the program didn’t end with the conclusion of the sessions. The connection formed between the young mothers and local health professionals was an added advantage of the program.
“The local baby health nurse was a young woman who also had a baby. She’s fast at texting, so the program participants would text her at night and on the weekend – they had that connection at a young people’s level,” said Heather.
A few women didn’t complete the program because they had their babies while the course was running, but Fiona anticipates they’ll come back to the service to get support and build their capacity.
Another positive outcome was the participants gained confidence to have conversations with other people, male and female, about the issue.
“The feedback was amazing, with women saying things like: “I’m going home to tell my sister,” said Heather.
The LDAT plans to expand on this successful project in their next Community Action Plan.
“Looking forward, we’d like to expand the program to post-birth. It would be great if kids attending kinder, could have a medical assessment so that the school can be aware of their needs, and they’re not left behind,” said Ros.
“We need more awareness, access to assessments and government support for early intervention. FASD is a lifetime issue and even though the child isn’t responsible, they need support,” continued Fiona.
“It has to be driven by regular annual awareness, so people don’t forget. We work in a section of the community that sees a high impact of AOD, we’re more aware of it than other people.”
Advice to other LDATs
Heather and Fiona both advise other LDATs to build strong community partnerships, and to lean on the expertise and support of ADF staff.
“You can’t do it without partnerships and community connection, you can’t come into a community you aren’t part of,” explained Fiona.
“The knowledge you get from the ADF is beneficial, as is the consistency of follow ups. We had our monthly meetings with Kasey, and he stepped in to support when we needed,” said Heather.