Preventing the Use of Marijuana: Focus on Women and Pregnancy (3 CE)

Course Level: Intermediate

This course is for: Social Workers, Psychologists, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Addiction Counselors and Graduate Students

Course By: Helen Hinton, LPCC

Content By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Preventing the Use of Marijuana: Focus on Women and Pregnancy. SAMHSA Publication No. PEP19-PL-Guide-2 Rockville, MD: National Mental Health and Substance Use Policy Laboratory. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2019.

Course Description: The prevention of marijuana use among pregnant women is essential for mitigating risk and adverse health consequences that may arise during pregnancy for the expectant mother and her developing offspring. The clinical presentation of such use is often-times complex.  Frequently, there are additional factors inclusive of co-occurring substance use, stress, age, mental health, and poor prenatal care that may have the concomitant effect of complicating the clinical approach to care. Moreover, these factors are resultant in the same pregnancy outcomes that are evidenced with sole marijuana use, sans the additional complicating factors. Empirically supported practices and strategies for substance use prevention when working with this population are also considered in this course.

Course Objectives:

1. Identify risk factors associated with marijuana use during pregnancy for both the expectant mother and her offspring, as well as the risks associated with postpartum marijuana use
2. Assess research findings pertaining to the prevention of substance misuse (including alcohol and tobacco) among pregnant and postpartum women
3. Recognize demographic-specific factors that are linked to marijuana use outcomes
4. Describe the core elements and outcomes of 6 programs that use evidence-based practices to prevent substance use by pregnant and postpartum women
5. List key considerations of empirically supported prevention practices and related programmatic implementation
6. Determine proper guidelines for selecting, implementing, and evaluating marijuana use prevention programs among pregnant women, postpartum women, and women of child-bearing age

Course Outline:

• Read and understand Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Preventing the Use of Marijuana: Focus on Women and Pregnancy
• Read and review the Course Description and Learning Objectives
• Consider the research findings pertaining to evidence-based prevention practices, policies, and programs for addressing marijuana use among pregnant and postpartum women
• Work through the post-test questions; bear in mind that answer selections should be derived from the respective journal article
• Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to review the identified resources for prevention practices and programs, standards for maintaining high-quality prevention efforts, and outcome monitoring guidelines

Approvals: