[Fasd_canadian_link] Where's the Mother Hale for kids with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?

[Elspeth Ross]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11522462?nclick_check=1
TwinCities.com
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

Rubén Rosario: Where's the Mother Hale for kids 
with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?
By Rubén Rosario
Posted: 01/22/2009 12:01:00 AM CST

There used to be a figure in New York City 
affectionately nicknamed Mother Hale. She was a 
Harlem woman who set up a home to care for 
crack-addicted babies. Her largesse during the 
1980s made national and international news.

The jarring video images of the infants she 
tended angered as well as melted hearts: wailing 
and squirming tiny bodies going through painful 
withdrawal in an incubator or crib. They 
indelibly put a hard-to-ignore face on the most 
vulnerable victims of a drug epidemic then 
sweeping that city, as well as other distressed 
inner-city neighborhoods throughout the nation.

It may be time for a Mother Hale of Minnesota ­ 
not for crack or meth but for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD.

It will surely be a tough go. See, drinking 
alcohol is legal, unlike most other vices, 
whether you are pregnant or not. Our society 
largely looks the other way because of this. And 
there are no such disturbing baby images that 
make the prime-time news before the cute puppy 
story to balance things before we head off to sleep or Jay Leno.

It doesn't matter that prenatal alcohol exposure 
is lifelong and irreversible and causes far more 
permanent brain damage to fetuses than cocaine, 
heroin, marijuana or other drugs, according to studies over the past 20 years.

Basically, if you are pregnant, don't drink. Can't say it any simpler.

But try as we might, we cannot legislate away all 
self-destructive behavior or stupidity.

So, it was not surprising that not one local 
television camera was in sight Wednesday at a 
small public-awareness rally at the state 
Capitol. Oh, there would have been a "good shoot" 
had 833 school buses, as one speaker pointed out, 
shown up, crammed with the estimated 50,000 Minnesotans born with FASD.

The folks were forced to settle for one rumpled 
columnist who nearly skipped the event for 
something else. Glad he showed up. This is what he learned:

An estimated 8,500 babies are born each year in 
Minnesota with FASD. Each has a lifetime price 
tag ­ from special education, health care, 
criminal justice and other societal expenses ­ of 
an estimated $2.9 million cost to taxpayers.

58 percent of women ages 18 to 44 in Minnesota 
use alcohol (one or more drinks in the past 30 days).

17 percent of women ages 18 to 44 in Minnesota 
binge drink (four or more drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days).

This prenatal poison causes massive damage to the 
brain's frontal lobe, which governs impulse, 
decision making and considering the consequences of one's actions.

So it was no great surprise to learn that 60 
percent of youths ages 12 to 21 with FASD ran 
afoul of the law and that slightly more than half 
are incarcerated. Another national study 
concluded that other such afflicted youths with 
what was described as "disrupted school 
experiences" were twice as likely to get into trouble with the law.

And this is what is known. A relatively small 
percentage of these kids are diagnosed with FASD 
only after they come in contact with the juvenile 
justice system. But locking up such afflicted 
kids seems to be the only and largely uninformed 
response from the corrections system.

"The juvenile justice system is not equipped to 
recognize, understand or effectively work with 
this population of kids," Wade Lennox, a juvenile 
probation officer in Kanabec County, informed a 
joint committee of House public safety policy and 
finance legislators Tuesday. He underlined that 
traditional methods of dealing with such 
offenders don't work because of systemwide ignorance about FASD.

TWO SHINING LIGHTS

The good news here is that I identified two potential Mother Hales.

One is Linda Walinski, a psychologist and 
registered nurse from Isanti and mother of adopted FASD kids.

"They don't understand cause and effect," 
Walinski told the legislators. She drew a 
parallel between physically disabled kids and those dealing with FASD.

"We don't expect them to walk, and we don't 
punish them for not walking," Walinski said. That 
is exactly what we do with those damaged by 
prenatal alcohol exposure, she noted. We dismiss 
and deal with them as "bad" kids.

The other is Kari Fletcher, 43, of Mankato, a 
mother of six, including two adopted kids with FASD.

Fletcher, who works as a southern regional 
representative for the Minnesota Organization on 
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, is a walking textbook on 
the prenatal disorder. She introduced me to Ben, 11, and Anna, 6.

Both look like average kids. Fletcher and her 
husband were foster parents for 16 years before 
they brought Ben and Anna into their extended family.

"Ben has alcohol-related neurodevelopmental 
disorder," Fletcher said after Wednesday's event. 
"He has central nervous system and brain damage. 
... If he gets frustrated at school, he will 
blow. He's learning a lot about his own 
disability and the way his brain works."

An 11-year-old trying to comprehend his 
brain-damaged lot in life. Digest that, please, for a moment.

Anna displays some notable features of FASD, "but 
she does not have the growth deficiency," Fletcher explained.

Fletcher painfully understands the lack of awareness, if not concern.

"It's a legal drug," she said of alcohol. "I hear 
it all the time: 'That's just for women who are 
alcoholics. They are the only ones who have kids like this.' "

A 2004 state study found that middle-class, 
college-educated pregnant women were the most ignorant about the dangers.

Why the compassion amid the frustrations? I ask Fletcher.

"My kids are more intense than others, but then 
so are the fun and the joy," Fletcher said. "I 
would not trade them for the world. I would do 
this (adopt) again in a heartbeat."

Mother Hales indeed.

Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario at pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.

ONLINE

To learn more about fetal alcohol spectrum 
disorder, go to <http://mofas.org>mofas.org.

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