About the Leadership Institute
The Leadership Institute is a community-based learning and planning experience that focuses on developing a system of care for pregnant and parenting women at risk for alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use. The program also addresses the needs of children born affected by prenatal exposure, seeking to lessen the effects through early intervention and the use of research-proven treatment strategies.
The Leadership Institute has two dimensions:
1. Preventing prenatal substance exposure.
2. Helping young children who have been substance-exposed – and other high-risk children – early in life when there is still time to make a difference in their lives.
In combination, these two aspects help a community avoid the human and financial costs of prenatal substance exposure and the serious emotional and behavioral problems of early childhood.
José’s case illustrates the effectiveness and importance of early intervention.
The Case of José
José is a child in a rural California County. At first glance, his story is one of an unstable home, disordered parents, and, ultimately, his self-destructiveness. But, on closer inspection, it also is a story of fragmented services, another child lost in a morass of good intentions but poor follow-up. A review of what happened along José’s journey was created when José was thirteen years old.
Where is The Leadership Institute Being Implemented?
The red dots indicate the states in which The Leadership Institute is being implemented. In some cases, single counties/regions have begun the process. For example, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the only location in Oklahoma implementing the process.
In other cases, most notably California, Kentucky and New Jersey, The Leadership Institute has been adopted in multiple communities, as the map of California illustrates. Some communities are in the early stages of the process while others are implementing one or both aspects – perinatal and children.
Does The Leadership Institute Work?
“I have been in the maternal child health field for many years, and for the last 20 years, we have been trying to address the problem of prenatal substance abuse in our county. It was not until our team attended the Leadership Institute that we actually were able to implement a perinatal substance use assessment program with our Obstetricians and begin screening all pregnant women in our county for the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs. We have accomplished more in the last three years than we had been able to do in 20 years. The institute helped us focus on our vision, set goals and objectives, and develop a scope of work that was easy to implement and support within our community.”
- Jan Campbell, RN, PHN, Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Director, San Luis Obispo, Ca.