Program
Overview
CARRII Native is an interactive, web-based program designed to help women, and others who can become pregnant, who are at risk for an alcohol exposed pregnancy due to:
- sometimes drinking at risky levels
- sometimes using no contraception or using it ineffectively.
The help offered by CARRII Native is based on interventions for alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) risk that have been developed over the past 20 years and tested in numerous scientific studies. Typically, this type of intervention is only available from counselors who have been specially trained in an evidence-based program, CHOICES, and only offered in weekly face-to-face sessions. CARRII Native was created to make this kind of help available to more women through a convenient home-based program that can be accessed at any time via the Internet.
If you have habits that put you at risk of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, research has shown that thinking about your actions and getting feedback about them can help you think through your habits, make decisions about any changes you might want to make, and helps you find your own reasons to make healthy changes. Personalized feedback gives you information about your risks and ways to reduce it. The CARRII program will help you make the healthy changes you choose to help you either prevent pregnancy or have a healthy baby.
What CARRII Native Is
CARRII Native is designed to help women, and others who can become pregnant, at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy by using the Internet to provide the online intervention. It begins with the Getting Ready Core, which reviews general information on women and drinking, women and contraception, and risk for alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and helps users evaluate their own problem and intervention goals. There are three more units, or Cores, focused on specific methods for thinking through your habits, considering any changes you may want to make, and taking steps towards change.
Each of these Cores takes about 30 minutes to complete. After completing a Core, users spend a week practicing what they have learned in their daily routines. The next week, a new Core is reviewed. During the program, CARRII Native users will complete guided online activities designed to help develop new habits and skills. CARRII Native users also complete daily CARRII online Diaries while using the program. Your feedback will help CARRII Native to provide personalized feedback and recommendations for you.
As you can see, CARRII Native takes time and effort. It is designed for women who are interested in reducing the risk of alcohol exposed pregnancy that could lead to having a child with specific lifelong disabilities. Habits that put women at risk usually develop over time, and it takes time to overcome them. With the help of CARRII Native, you can make some changes that can keep you on track for a healthy pregnancy, if and when the time is right for you.
What CARRII Native Is Not
CARRII Native is not intended to take the place of evaluation and treatment for addiction. While some women who enroll in CARRII Native may have alcohol use problems, the program is designed to help women who are drinking in a way that can create some risks, although it may help women to reduce risky drinking.
CARRII Native is also not designed to be a treatment for women who are already pregnant and who are drinking. CARRII Native is designed to help women who are not currently pregnant or planning a pregnancy soon, but who might become pregnant sometime in the future, and who want to have a healthy pregnancy.