Dissemination & evaluation of the Australian Guide to the diagnosis of FASD

What did we do?

The Australian Guide to the diagnosis of FASD and eLearning modules were published in 2016. Work commenced in 2018 to further disseminate and raise awareness of the Australian Guide, and to evaluate the use and applicability of the eLearning modules.

The Australian Guide and eLearning modules were disseminated using multiple modalities including via relevant websites, presentations at scientific conferences and seminars and in specially convened clinical training workshops. These workshops were developed to provide detailed training on the use of the Guide and obtain feedback from multi-disciplinary groups. The latter activity enabled us to develop a Facilitator Manual and other resources to enable sustainable conduct of future clinical training workshops, using a train-the-trainer model.

To measure levels of health professional awareness and use of the Australia Guide and the eLearning modules both before and during the Dissemination Project the following data sources were examined:

Website analytics

• Telethon Kids Institute Alcohol and Pregnancy & FASD
• Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU)
• FASD Hub Australia (FASD Hub)

Survey data

• Workshop evaluation surveys
• APSU FASD study
• Health professionals FASD Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Information Needs/Preferences Survey

Presentations at scientific conferences and seminars

A final project report was provided to the Department of Health.

The eLearning modules were updated in June 2019

The Australian Guide was updated in February 2020. Links have been updated and some pages reformatted. There have been no amendments to the diagnostic instrument and how to use it.

You can access the Australian Guide to the diagnosis of FASD and eLearning Modules on the FASD Hub