From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:50:06 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 12:53:06 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] National guidelines on drinking, pregnancy urged Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301122241.042e6200@ncf.ca> [Note: In Health Canada's Framework for Action on FASD, the incidence is estimated to be nine in 1,000 live births. Public Health Agancy of Canada. Research Update:Alcohol Use and Pregnancy: An Important Canadian Public Health and Social Issue 31 January 2007] ER "...The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates between one and six of every 1,000 children are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder..." www.canada.com [article published in various Canadian newspapers under different titles, eg. Alcohol, pregnancy guide planned, Doctors plan to develop booze, pregnancy guides] 27 Feb 2009 Edmonton Journal BECKY RYNOR OTTAWA National guidelines on drinking, pregnancy urged Public confused about limits, gynecologists, obstetricians say The group representing obstetricians and gynecologists said Thursday it will develop national guidelines on how much alcohol ? if any ? is safe for women to consume leading up to and during pregnancy. ?The advice is extremely inconsistent, the advice is sometimes downright wrong and the perception on the part of the public is extremely wide and varied,? said Dr. Vyta Senikas, a spokeswoman for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Senikas, who says she has delivered more than 10,000 babies in nearly 30 years of practice, says currently there are no guidelines in Canada for doctors to either educate themselves about alcohol and pregnancy or for them to advise women during pre-conception and conception. Consequently, she says the advice varies from province to province and from physician to physician. ?I have patients who think a couple of beers a day is not an issue. And the question is, is it an issue? That?s what we?re going to look at,? Senikas said. ?And it has to do with the equivalents of what a couple of beers are and what a martini is. And there?s the whole issue of binge drinking and patterns of alcohol drinking. It?s a review of the literature on that.? She said one doctor may tell a pregnant woman, or one trying to get pregnant, ?don?t drink at all,? while another may say ?moderate drinking? is OK. ?Are we talking about a beer? So what?s the percentage of alcohol? Are we talking about a Canadian beer or imported beer? Light beer, wine, cocktails. What are we talking about there? A lot of people, when they think of alcohol, they think of liquor like gin, whiskey. But they may not think of beer,? she said. ?We?ve been made aware the message is inconsistent and may, in fact, be wrong.? Senikas said the guidelines will put together the best national and international information available to develop guidelines and recommendations for physicians to give to patients. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates between one and six of every 1,000 children are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, a term that refers to disabilities that can result from alcohol use during pregnancy. Senikas said the society hopes to have new guidelines in about one year after consulting with a number of organizations, including the Canadian College of Family Practice, the Society of Rural Physicians, midwives, obstetric nurses and public health nurses. 27 Feb 2009 The Vancouver Sun BY BECKY RYNOR Canwest News Service Alcohol, pregnancy guide planned Advice varies from province to province and is ? sometimes downright wrong,? medical group official says OTTAWA ? The group representing obstetricians and gynecologists said Thursday it will develop national guidelines on how much alcohol ? if any ? is safe for women to consume leading up to and during pregnancy. ? The advice is extremely inconsistent, the advice is sometimes downright wrong and the perception on the part of the public is extremely wide and varied,? said Dr. Vyta Senikas, a spokeswoman for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Senikas, who says she has delivered more than 10,000 babies in nearly 30 years of practice, says currently there are no guidelines in Canada for doctors to either educate themselves about alcohol and pregnancy or for them to advise women during pre-conception and conception. Consequently, she says the advice varies from province to province and from physician to physician. ? I have patients who think a couple of beers a day is not an issue. And the question is, is it an issue? That?s what we?re going to look at,? Senikas said. ? And it has to do with the equivalents of what a couple of beers are and what a martini is. And there?s the whole issue of binge drinking and patterns of alcohol drinking. It?s a review of the literature on that.? She said one doctor may tell a pregnant woman, or a woman trying to get pregnant, ? don?t drink at all,? while another may say ? moderate drinking? is OK. ? Are we talking about a beer? So what?s the percentage of alcohol? Are we talking about a Canadian beer or imported beer? Light beer, wine, cocktails. What are we talking about there? A lot of people, when they think of alcohol, they think of liquor like gin, whiskey. But they may not think of beer,? she said. ? We?ve been made aware the message is inconsistent and may in fact be wrong.? Senikas said the guidelines will put together the best national and international information available to develop guidelines and recommendations for physicians to give to patients. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists estimates between one and six out of every 1,000 children are born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, a term that refers to disabilities that can result from alcohol use during pregnancy. Senikas said the society hopes to have new guidelines in about one year after consulting with a number of organizations, including the Canadian College of Family Practice, the Society of Rural Physicians, midwives, obstetric nurses and public health nurses. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/7655cf05/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:56:02 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:04:12 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] When Grandma has to raise the kids Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301114405.042e69b0@ncf.ca> [] "...Buxton is a freelance journalist and author who has written widely about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder..." http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/592550 parentcentral.ca thestar.com Toronto Star When Grandma has to raise the kids February 28, 2009 Andrea Gordon Family issues reporter [Photo] RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR Bonnie Buxton and Brian Philcox are seniors raising their grandchildren. Here, they help Vicky, 6, build a cardboard stage as Kenny, 9, plays on the computer. Her grandkids' names are Kenny and Vicky, but Bonnie Buxton also affectionately refers to them as "the Doodads." The nickname goes back almost six years, to when the children first came to live with Grandma and Grandpa, at ages 3 and 2. "Whenever we discovered a mess of some kind and asked who did it, one of them would say, `I dood dat,'" explains Buxton, 68. She can't talk for long about charming, athletic Kenny and red-haired, theatrical Vicky without giggling. Good thing, too. Having a sense of humour is vital when you suddenly find yourself raising children in the golden years. Rushing to swimming lessons and Cubs, sinking on aging knees into those miniature chairs for parent-teacher interviews, and scraping glitter paint off the kitchen floor is tough during your 60s. This month, 60-year-old Ranjit Hayer of Calgary gave birth to twins, prompting headlines about the ethics of childrearing at that stage of life. She and her husband Jagir, also 60, had travelled to India for in-vitro fertilization after 43 years of trying to have a family. While being a grandparent isn't quite the same thing, those who have braved toddler tantrums, sleep deprivation and mounds of laundry during their seventh decade are quick to say that yes, age does make a difference. Buxton, who has never regretted rearing her grandkids, now 9 and 7, couldn't believe the news. "I thought she was nuts. Why would anybody voluntarily do this?" To St. Catharines grandfather Terry Hrankowski, "It seems everything is doubled because of your age. I sure hope they (the Hayers) have a lot of help." Hrankowski, 67, and his wife Barbara, 64, have spent the past seven years caring for their two granddaughters and a grandson, ages 9 through 14, after their daughter and her husband split up. The younger two recently returned to live with their mother, who has always been involved in their lives. The couple misses having all three full-time and wouldn't have done it any other way. But it takes its toll. With age comes wisdom, experience and perspective. Recent research has found older parents may be more emotionally prepared for the stresses of parenthood, have stronger social support networks and tend to be more involved with their children. But those raising kids in their 60s also deal with less physical stamina, a double generation gap and an acute sense of mortality. The odds of being the only caregiver also increase because of health risks. According to the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), about 60,000 Canadian grandparents are caring for grandchildren; half are single. The 2006 census found roughly 43,000 Canadian children up to age 19 were being raised by grandparents. Financial stress is a huge issue for many and CARP is among those pushing Ontario to provide more financial assistance for grandparents living on fixed incomes that aren't intended to support children. Many receive much less than a foster parent would get. Money isn't the only challenge, however. There's technology to keep up with; grown-ups are expected to be much more involved in schooling and homework than they were two generations ago. "It has its pleasures, believe me, but we were also glad when they'd go to bed at night," says Hrankowski. "You try to keep up with them, but it's impossible." What about the adage that kids keep you young? "I tell you, I don't feel any younger. It's hard, mentally and physically," he says. The former labourer had been retired for four months when he returned to childrearing. His wife kept her office job to help cover expenses. They bought bunk beds for their three-bedroom home. Savings disappeared. Plans for leisurely days and post-retirement trips were replaced by evenings trying to figure out modern math, chauffeuring to hockey, soccer and dance lessons, and dealing with the kids' emotional upheaval. "The response we always got from friends was `I don't know how you do it.'" Hrankowski has a heart condition. He says his health issues are hardest on the kids. Buxton and her husband Brian Philcox, 71, are also conscious of how their age and health affects their grandchildren's security. Buxton is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed and went through treatment shortly after Kenny and Vicky moved in. Philcox had a quadruple bypass in 2006. That sense of mortality means they see every day as a gift, but are also acutely aware not to take it for granted. "It's very complex and something that's with us all the time, but you can't spend your lives worrying about what's going to happen," says Buxton. It was a hot Saturday in June 2003 when the couple arrived home from a four-week trip to Australia and New Zealand to find Kenny and Vicky, 18 months apart and both still in diapers, waiting for them. The children's mother had gone through a devastating breakup with her partner and couldn't cope. So she left the kids with their aunt, who had been house-sitting. Philcox had retired from his career in marketing and communications; Buxton is a freelance journalist and author who has written widely about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which results from prenatal exposure to alcohol. They had moved from a home in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood, where they raised two adopted daughters, to their retirement dream home in Scarborough. "By September, we realized we were in it for the long haul," says Buxton. Kenny got the coat room. Vicky got the dressing room, though most nights she'd arrive at her grandparents' bed in the dark and end up curled between them. They've been in the fray ever since, making last-minute dashes to buy Valentine's Day cards for the class, remembering to return library books, booking doctor's appointments, filling out school forms. Their backyard pool is a blessing. So was subsidized child care provided by the City of Toronto in the early years. But the energy reserve isn't quite what it used to be. "The minute we get them into bed, I'm in bed or we conk out on the couch watching TV," says Buxton. During the kids' frequent overnight visits with their mother, the grandparents don't go out dancing or socializing; they flop. To Mary Lou Scott, 66, one of the hardest things about raising her granddaughter was the isolation. The Hamilton grandmother was 55 when she and her husband won custody of the 9-year-old. Their daughter had a mental illness and wasn't able to care for her child. They haven't seen her for 10 years. Scott, who spent her early 60s immersed in the tumult of the teen years, says the biggest challenge was not having any peers. "I didn't fit in anywhere," she says. She and her husband were much older than parents of her granddaughter's classmates, and no longer had the spontaneity and freedom to keep up with their own empty-nester friends. Scott did her best to adapt. On the Grade 7 field trip to Canada's Wonderland, the kids talked her into going on Drop Zone, one of the scariest rides. "It's what parents do," she says, laughing. It was her first and last time. Now her granddaughter is 20 and thriving in third-year university in Toronto, says Scott, a few minutes after proofreading one of her essays by email. She is proud ? and relieved. There was a time she worried a lot about staying healthy and energetic. "I remember saying to myself, `I have to have four more years to get my granddaughter on her feet'... What can you offer a child when you're 70 and they're 10? Who would you have to raise them?" -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/ae5a6249/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:56:26 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:04:14 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] City youth centre earns top-tier status: Edmonton Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301123422.042e6200@ncf.ca> "...50 beds are regularly filled with teenagers dealing with the trauma of abuse, drug addiction, mental-health problems and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. ..." www.canada.com 27 Feb 2009 Edmonton Journal ALEXANDRA ZABJEK EDMONTON azabjek@thejournal.canwest.com City youth centre earns top-tier status Yellowhead facility offers excellent care to clientele who face a wide range of traumas WALTER TYCHNOWICZ, THE JOURNAL [Photo] Child and youth care councillor Andrew, left, chats with Kelly Zahara, a manager at the Yellowhead Youth Centre. An Edmonton group-care facility has been recognized as a leader in Alberta for its work with teenagers tackling tough emotional problems. The Yellowhead Youth Centre serves almost 400 youths every year. Its 50 beds are regularly filled with teenagers dealing with the trauma of abuse, drug addiction, mental-health problems and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. They come from every community in the city. "People have always assumed these kids come from broken homes in the inner city," said Kelly Zahara, the centre's assistant manager. Zahara has worked at the Yellowhead Youth Centre since 1981. Treatments for her clients have changed over the years, but not the problems. Group-care workers are better informed about the effects of abuse and the treatment of mentalhealth issues. The expertise Zahara and her staff have developed was recognized last week when the Canadian Accreditation Council awarded the Yellowhead Youth Centre a top-tier evaluation, called a fouryear accreditation. Just 10 per cent of child welfare programs in the province are expected to receive such an accreditation this year. It allows a centre to go four years before its programs and services must be re-evaluated. It is a sign of excellence in care for troubled youth. "It's a huge marker for us," Zahara said. "You can have all of the knowledge in the world, but if you're not practising it, it doesn't mean anything in the end." There are 2,900 children and youth in care in Edmonton and the surrounding region. About 400 reside in group care homes, 1,500 in foster care, and about 1,000 live with family or extended family. Some, such as one 14-year-old girl who suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and attention deficit disorder, have come to the centre after problems arose at foster homes. "It's been a roller-coaster," she said about her 10 months at Yellowhead. "When I first came here, I was very aggressive. I didn't want to be around kids because I got picked on a lot. Now, I'm making some friends." She hopes to live with an uncle on a nearby reserve when she leaves. The Yellowhead Youth Centre is the biggest group-care facility in the city. Operating in a residential community hasn't always been easy. "Our kids come here and people think they're bad kids, they're young offender kids. But they're not, they're kids that are vulnerable and need our compassion and support and protection," Zahara said. People "think they have all these problems," she said. "They just have different problems." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/04c0a479/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:57:39 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:04:17 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Debate over teaching vs. medicating Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301112825.042e6f58@ncf.ca> [] http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/593728 parentalcentral.ca thestar.com Toronto Star Debate over teaching vs. medicating February 27, 2009 Andrea Gordon Family issues reporter Chris Canavan has been diagnosed with dyslexia and an attention disorder. To most of society, the Vancouver businessman has a "learning disability." Not to him. "I'm not disabled. I'm not broken and I don't need fixing. I'm successful at what I do," says Canavan, 37, who also has an 11-year-old daughter with dyslexia and ADHD. Instead, Canavan says he and the roughly 10 per cent of the population diagnosed with learning disabilities simply process information differently. What needs fixing, he adds, is an education system and a society fixated on deficits and unprepared to teach or accommodate the way some people learn. His comments came on the heels of news this week of a future drug to treat learning disabilities. The drug, now being tested on Alzheimer's patients, would boost the performance of brain receptors that are crucial for learning. While the research is in its infancy, the possibility of medication has been met with enthusiasm by some educators and concern by others like Canavan who are wary about the implications of medicating cognitive disorders. Canavan is part of an increasingly vocal group who feel society and schools must recognize and accept as normal a wide spectrum of differences in the way brains are wired. This notion of "neurodiversity" ? a variation in neurological functioning ? first emerged among autism activists in the 1990s and is gaining ground in the learning disbilities community. Sue Hall of Vancouver, founder of The Whole Dyslexic Society, stresses that while those with dyslexia are seen as having a reading impairment, their way of interpreting the world is also a gift. "Dyslexia is not a medical condition," she says, adding it is often accompanied by an unusual perceptual ability that isn't recognized in typical classrooms and calls for visual and multi-dimensional teaching strategies. "The system is telling these children they are disabled, but they're not." But for some educators the notion of a future drug to help struggling children is welcome news. "I think it holds a great deal of promise for parents and children with learning disabilities and the whole field," says John McNamara, professor in child and youth studies at Brock University in St. Catharines. McNamara, also co-president of the Canadian Association of Educational Psychology, runs clinics for children with reading difficulties and sees the toll it can take on self-esteem and development. While medication shouldn't be a first resort, he says, it could be one of many tools to "support the learning process" in kids with severe difficulties. "If I were a parent of a child with a learning disability I would be happy to have it in the toolbox." Tayyab Rashid, a school psychologist with the Toronto District School Board, says while drugs should not be the first line of intervention or viewed as a shortcut, if used cautiously they could prove useful for some children. But the drug debate also raises questions about a system focused on disabilities and problems rather than strengths. "We have been obsessed with fixing the weaknesses, supported by a flourishing industry which gave us many tools to identify those," says Rashid. In contrast, school psychologists who conduct assessments of students to diagnose learning disabilities have few resources to identify strengths. Rashid is unusual because when he tests students he also assesses character strengths like creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, citizenship and enthusiasm. "I'm not denying (disabilities) but those problems can best be tackled by understanding the wholeness of our children," says Rashid. The focus on labelling students according to their disabilities has largely developed because a formal diagnosis is needed to access many special education services. Among those worried about this trend is California educator Thomas Armstrong, whose book The Gift of Neurodiversity, due out next year, will explore the strengths in many kids with ADD, dyslexia and other brain differences. Canavan, who often speaks with teens and kids in his role as board member of the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, says the school system needs environments where different learners can thrive. "It sometimes seems like society is trying to streamline everyone into a nice straight line. But we need people who learn differently." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/7418f5c2/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:57:59 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:04:19 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] MD touts medication for learning disabled Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301113838.042e69b0@ncf.ca> http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/592086 parentalcentral.ca thestar.com Toronto Star MD touts medication for learning disabled February 24, 2009 Joseph Hall HEALTH REPORTER People born with inherited learning disorders may one day have these deficits restored by medication, a top researcher at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children says. A new Sick Kids study, released today, is part of an emerging "paradigm shift" in the field that sees chemicals, rather than things like separate schooling, as a potential way to deal with myriad learning deficits, says Dr. Rod McInnes, a senior scientist at the hospital. "It established the principle that you might be able to offer more than special education to people with learning disabilities," McInnes, the paper's senior author, said in an interview. "It is no longer a fantasy to think that drug treatment might, in the future, be available for such patients," he added in a news release on the study, published in the online journal PLoS Biology. While he stresses the research is in its infancy, and that it will be years before any drugs might be ready, McInnes says studies like his suggest inherited learning disorders may not be "written in stone." With many such conditions ? which may include some types of attention deficit disorders ? the brain cells needed for learning are all present, McInnes says. "What's lacking is all the machinery that's required for normal communication between the neurons," he says. Researchers looked at the neural protein Neto1, which plays a crucial role in allowing electrical connections to be made between neural synapses in the brain's hippocampus. These cells, McInnes says, are likely responsible for spatial learning, the ability to recall where things are in your surroundings. McInnes' team took a set of mice that had their ability to produce Neto1 genetically removed. While normal mice were able to find a platform hidden within a water maze, the mice lacking the protein "didn't have a clue," McInnes says. When the genetically altered mice were given a drug now being tested on Alzheimer's patients, however, they were able to find the platform. David Colman, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research scientist, called the work "first rate" and said it points to a new direction for learning disorder science. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/a8cea24a/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 1 12:59:45 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:04:21 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Cutting up the knife ban Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090301121654.042e6200@ncf.ca> "...violent crime as something a community has a certain fixed increment of, depending on things like the raw number of males aged 16-45, the prevailing racial mix, the income distribution and the amount of fetal-alcohol syndrome in the adult population...." www.canada.com 27 Feb 2009 National Post COLBY COSH National Post colbycosh@gmail.com CUTTING UP THE KNIFE BAN You probably saw some of the headlines that were spawned earlier this week when Edmonton?s mayor, Stephen Mandel, grew frustrated after a sequence of stabbings in the city and started conjecturing wildly about a municipal bylaw banning certain kinds of knives. I?m presuming he meant ?any knife that can be used to hurt somebody,? but it seems to me that given enough motivation on the part of the user, that pretty much includes all of them. In high school I once inadvertently sawed about halfway through my thumb with one of those harmless-looking plastic knives they give you in a cafeteria so you can dismember your meatloaf. I?m willing to bet that at least one of those seemingly innocuous cutting implements has been used in a prison, at least once, to settle a drug deal gone bad. I guess the message here, and if the mayor is reading he may want to take a memo, is that knives, by design, cut flesh. Mandel has backed down somewhat after a wave of polite ridicule from citizens and police, who helpfully reminded him that there is already an abundance of laws on the books restricting the carrying of concealed weaponry and outlawing things like spring-loaded knives. On Thursday he told a local paper, ?Maybe I overreacted, you know, ban knives wasn?t what I really meant in total. We can?t ban the use of knives.? He is falling back on to the need for Edmontonians to be ?educated? in the dangers of knives, as if the people who carried them had completely innocent motives in doing so, but kept finding them embedded in the kidneys of strangers through sheer mischance. In truth, we probably can?t even do much about the prevalence of concealed knives. If you?ve ever watched the made-in-Canada Cops knockoff, To Serve and Protect, you know that nearly every time some teenage graffiti kid or car thief is picked up skulking around a residential neighbourhood at 1 a.m., there follows an elaborate harlequinade, refined through centuries of copper-underclass interaction, in which the cops ask the perp if he has a knife, the perp says no and the cops search him and find the (virtually inevitable) knife within about 10 seconds. One of the ideas Mandel floated was putting metal detectors in bar entrances, but I fear that all this would accomplish would be to deprive us Edmontonians of the single best don?t-get-stabbed strategy now available to us: i.e., avoiding any public house that has a ?NO KNIVES? sign on the door. Just as the ?This community does not tolerate prostitution? signs on Edmonton?s 118 Avenue actually denote the overwhelming presence of prostitution, a ?NO KNIVES? sign in a bar is practically a guarantee of closing-time knife-play. I don?t know why it is so hard for politicians to be realistic about weaponry. From a public policy standpoint, liberals should be actively celebrating knife crime in Edmonton as a corollary of gun control: Every time somebody gets pig-stuck in an alleyway here, several bystanders who might have been wounded in some Torontostyle shootout have implicitly been saved. This is a good thing, no? Fact is, the social science evidence pretty much points to violent crime as something a community has a certain fixed increment of, depending on things like the raw number of males aged 16-45, the prevailing racial mix, the income distribution and the amount of fetal-alcohol syndrome in the adult population. A mere mayor has access to few of the relevant policy levers, and a nice, noodly liberal mayor like Mandel would refuse to touch most of the ones that could make a genuine difference. If he is specifically concerned about homicide, probably the most effective thing he could do would be to pay special attention to ambulance response times. The rate at which stabbed people die in a city is something a mayor can change ? indeed, it may depend upon him to quite a significant degree. We could talk about the incentives that are incorporated into our justice system, of course, and consider whether our prosecutors, judges and lawmakers are doing enough to deter incidents of violence. Any British person can tell you that gun control is a comprehensively refuted means of influencing the amount of violence in a society; it is much less clear that executing murderers will not work, and there is some evidence that it does work. But here in Canada we?ve placed the idea that has a fighting chance permanently beyond the pale, and embraced the idea that, on its own, is guaranteed to accomplish nothing. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090301/3877aec1/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Thu Mar 5 21:40:20 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Thu Mar 5 21:46:12 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Yukon teen with FASD 'fell through the cracks' Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090305213651.04776d90@ncf.ca> http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/02/23/foster-youth.html cbcnews.ca Health Yukon teen with FASD 'fell through the cracks': advocate Last Updated: Monday, February 23, 2009 | 12:20 PM ET CBC News An advocate for Yukoners with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder has called on the territorial government to do more to help FASD-affected youth in care, following a young man's traumatic experience in government care last month. Bernice Whelan has taken her 18-year-old foster son, who has brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, back to her current home in Newfoundland and Labrador, where she says she wants to help him rebuild his life. The teen had spent the past year and a half at the Children's Receiving Home when he fell, hit his head and suffered severe frostbite on his hands on the streets of Whitehorse last month. "It's tragic, it's heartbreaking, and it didn't need to happen," Deb Evensen, executive director of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society in the Yukon, told CBC News. "He fell through the cracks because he didn't have the kind of support that he needed because he has the kind of brain difference that he has." Whelan, who raised the youth since he was a baby, told CBC News the Yukon government had promised to place the boy in a family home when she retired and returned to her home province in 2007. Instead, the youth ended up at the receiving home. Whelan said her foster son often called her at night from the streets of Whitehorse. Before she and her foster son left for Newfoundland and Labrador on Friday, Whelan said the Department of Health and Social Services agreed to pay for her foster son's plane ticket, as well as two months worth of social assistance. "I don't think he should be on welfare. I think the government should at least give him a year to get back to where he was, because he needs a lot of mental health help," she said Friday. "Then I want to get him into an apprenticeship, so it's just enough to support him financially." Evensen said the teen should not have been placed at the Children's Receiving Home for a year and a half, adding that youth at the home should be monitored 24 hours a day. Evensen said while children in government care are generally more likely to have prenatal alcohol exposure, she said the Health and Social Services Department is not screening children for fetal alcohol syndrome-related issues. "If the children were apprehended [and] they were screened for this kind of brain injury, then we would be able to set up the kind of programs that we need that could actually work," she said. "We'd save a heck of a lot of money for all the systems." Whelan said deputy health minister Stuart Whitley told her he is looking into her foster son's case. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090305/c3ff2274/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Thu Mar 5 22:02:55 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Thu Mar 5 22:10:10 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Alberta experts leading research on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090305220000.043c9c28@ncf.ca> http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/02/27/edm-fasd-conference.html cbcnews.ca Canada Edmonton Alberta experts leading research on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Last Updated: Monday, March 2, 2009 | 1:06 PM MT CBC News [Photo] Kristine Aanderson, the senior program manager for the Chimo Pr Kristine Aanderson, the senior program manager for the Chimo Project in Edmonton, uses animals like these two dogs to help children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. (CBC) Alberta is leading the way when it comes to research on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, according to an expert in the field. "[Alberta presenters are] doing some things in certain areas that are really unique and innovative and interesting," said Jan Lutke, clinical research manager for the Canada Northwest FASD Research Network and chair of the International FASD Conference taking place next week in Victoria, B.C. Almost 20 Alberta experts from the fields of medicine, justice, social work and education will join presenters from around the world at the conference, which runs March 11-14. FASD refers to a range of disabilities that are seen in people whose mothers drank alcohol while they were pregnant. Problems children face can include learning disabilities, memory loss, short attention spans and difficulty understanding the consequences of actions. Kristine Aanderson, the senior program manager for the Chimo Project in Edmonton, will speak to the conference about how she uses animals to help children with FASD. "We're finding big increases in their social skills, big increases in their participation and motivation and when they are in a therapy session, they want to work a lot harder," Aanderson said. She uses cats, birds, a miniature horse and a four-year-old Sheltie named Pippen to get children to open up, and decrease their levels of anxiety and depression. Having the opportunity to present her research to an international audience at the Victoria conference gives what she is doing a stamp of approval, Aanderson said. "We spent 10 years amassing this evidence about how effective it is," she said. "We've really reached a point now where the world is starting to recognize ... this is something amazing and it really can help these clients." This type of therapy is still fairly new, so there's a lot of interest in this kind of research, Jan Lutke said. "Animal assisted therapy seems to be making a significant difference for a lot of people," she said. "So let's let everyone know that. There are people coming to the conference from all over the world." You can hear more on how children and adults with FASD are supported and treated in Million Dollar Babies: Beyond Denial and Damage of Fetal Alcohol Disorder a series airing Monday through Friday on CBC Radio in Edmonton. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090305/308309bd/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 14:58:03 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 15:04:20 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Unique project helps keep FASD teens out of jail: Lethbridge Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090306145454.03f724c8@ncf.ca> http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/03/05/edm-fasd-lethbridge.html cbcnews.ca Canada Unique project helps keep FASD teens out of jail Last Updated: Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 4:23 PM MT CBC News [Photo] Lethrbridge police Const. Mark Waage. Lethrbridge police Const. Mark Waage. (submitted by Mark Waage) A unique program in Lethbridge, about 200 kilometres south of Calgary, is being hailed as a success by police, who told CBC News this week that it has helped hundreds of families keep their children out of jail. The Lethbridge Justice Project was created 10 years ago after a police school-resource officer became frustrated with the lack of help available for a high school student who was always in trouble. The teenager was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, FASD, caused when a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. Children afflicted with the incurable brain disorder have trouble with impulse control and knowing right from wrong. Const. Mark Waage has been the full-time officer working on the justice project for the last four years. "I'm basically a conduit, and making sure the person or the youth is properly advocated for when they are in the justice system," Waage said. The constable was involved in close to 60 cases last year. "The success stories are ongoing ... when I go in to the Crown and say, 'Look, here's an individual with FASD,' it's not an excuse for their behaviour but it's certainly an explanation for their behaviour," Waage said. Many families being helped The justice project has helped families in the Lethbridge area understand the disorder that afflicts their children and how to manage it, said Robert Coleman, the chief Crown prosecutor for the Lethbridge Region. "They have brain damage ... they don't necessarily understand cause and effect, the usual justice or traditional justice consequences are likely not nearly as effective with these individuals as they are with somebody else," he said. "My information in speaking with my Crown prosecutors and the city police offices [is] yes, that they definitely do not offend as often as they had in the past," Coleman said. The father of a 16-year-old girl with FASD who was picked up for shoplifting and using a stolen credit card said through the efforts of Waage and in collaboration with the Crown prosecutor's office, his daughter received probation and community service for her crimes. "He just met us down here at the courthouse on our court dates, went in and talked to the prosecutor and said, 'This is the story, this is what the family has been going through,' ... it seemed to be a lot lighter than it would've been had we not had Mark's help," the father said. Bright future Laura Elliott, a social worker with McMann Youth Services in Lethbridge, was the person who initially referred the young woman to a doctor for diagnosis. Elliott finds it satisfying to help families understand why their children behave the way they do, and help these families and their children make plans for the future. "She has some incredible strengths, very good with working with seniors ... she has a future, a great one, now that we know," Elliott said. The teen's stepmother said the situation at home is much improved. "She's not on the honour roll by any means but ... she's making like 98 per cent of the classes and she's got like 60 per cent in her classes,70 per cent in some classes, and it's a lot better," she said. There are plans to expand the project to work with adults afflicted by FASD, said Hazel Mitchell, co-ordinator of the FASD Alberta South network, who has been with the project since its inception. "We're going to put in a project that will work with the adult in the justice system who is affected with FASD. So we're going to see if we can have some effect with that particular clientele as well," Mitchell said. It's estimated that 20 to 30 per cent of adult inmates in Canada's justice system suffer from FASD, according to police documents. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/d7ed7711/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 15:11:32 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 15:16:14 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Can't afford to attend an FASD conference? Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090306150431.03f3f908@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 15:20:13 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 15:22:11 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Fetal alcohol syndrome costing millions, researchers say Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090306151817.03f71e60@ncf.ca> http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/02/fas-costs060302.html cbcnews.ca Health Fetal alcohol syndrome costing millions, researchers say Last Updated: Thursday, March 2, 2006 | 9:16 PM ET CBC News Caring for children with fetal alcohol syndrome in Canada costs millions of dollars a year and researchers are calling for more resources to fight the disease. "The cost...is staggering, but it really does not tell the real story of misery, poor quality of life and lifelong suffering for the children and their families, which cannot be measured in dollars," said Dr. Gideon Koren, who supervised a recent study on fetal alcohol syndrome. The study, by Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and St. Michael's Hospital, estimates the disease costs Canada more than $344 million a year. Nineteen per cent of that comes directly out of family's pockets. [Photo] Fetal alcohol syndrome is a set of physical abnormalities caused when a woman drinks during pregnancy. "It is hoped that this seminal paper will lead to desperately needed resources," said Dr. Brenda Stade, the study's lead author and program director of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Clinic at St. Michael's Hospital. Fetal alcohol syndrome is caused when women drink during pregnancy. It is the leading cause of life-long developmental and cognitive disabilities among Canadian children, affecting up to one in 100 births, said Stade. The study found families pay an average of about $14,000 a year to support the needs of a child with fetal alcohol syndrom. Special education and medical costs accounted for about a third of the out-of-pocket expenses for each family. The greatest burden occurs when the children are between six and 15, as costs increase for specialized education and the use of psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists. Fetal alcohol syndrome causes a range of physical and psychiatric problems, from learning disabilities to behavioural problems. Affected children with can also show a wide range of socially inappropriate behaviours, including lying, stealing and an inability to differentiate right from wrong. There are an estimated 400,000 Canadians with fetal alcohol syndrome. The study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of FAS International. (with notes from Canadian Press) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/9a8ec420/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 15:20:23 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 15:22:19 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Million Dollar Babies: Beyond denial and damage of fetal alcohol disorder Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090306151325.03d14610@ncf.ca> http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/fasd/ cbc.ca Edmonton Features Million Dollar Babies: Beyond denial and damage of fetal alcohol disorder Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder They're called million dollar babies, and one is born every day in Alberta. They are babies with brain injuries caused by the alcohol their mothers drank during pregnancy ? brain injuries that can cost a fortune to deal with over a lifetime. For one week, CBC Radio's James Hees takes a look at the cost of raising a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and what is being done to address the problem. Listen to the full series and share your comments below. Audio ? Listen Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Mar. 6: MRI testing (5:00) Listen Listen Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Mar. 5: Adult diagnosis (6:49) Listen Listen Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Mar. 4: Justice program (6:47) Listen Listen FASD victims involved with the law Mar. 4: A community solution (6:22) Listen FASD Mar. 3: One family, two FASD children (7:52) Listen Listen FASD preschool Mar. 3: A specially designed classroom (4:17) Listen Listen FASD Part one Mar. 2: What it is and how prevalent it is (7:46) Listen Listen Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Feb. 11: A mother and daughter share their story (5:47) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/d2b24faf/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 15:23:35 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 15:28:16 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Woman's story of living with fetal alcohol syndrome graces cover of magazine Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090305222059.03cbb140@ncf.ca> http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090223/NEWS01/902230307 Great Falls Tribune Great Falls, Montana February 23, 2009 Woman's story of living with fetal alcohol syndrome graces cover of magazine Melissa Clark was happy to be on the cover of the winter issue of Apostrophe magazine, published by the Anaconda-based nonprofit group AWARE Inc. "I loved it," the Great Falls woman said. "We are thrilled," added her foster mother, Catholic Sister Johnelle Howanach. The 32-year-old Clark was born with fetal alcohol syndrome after her birth mother drank while pregnant. Melissa, a member of the Gros Ventre Assiniboine Sioux tribe, was raised in Great Falls by Howanach. An article about Clark by Judie E. Gulley, which originally ran in the Cincinnati-based St. Anthony Messenger magazine, was reprinted in Apostrophe. The article describes Clark's difficult road, from a hyperactive youngster who was considered impossible to educate, to an adult who runs her own business making homemade dog biscuits. Her foster mother helps with the business, called Lissie's Luv Yums, but Clark does much of the work herself. Clark also gives a half-dozen inspirational talks per year to students and adults in Montana and nationwide, telling how she managed to overcome adversity. However, she said her success story sometimes leads people to overestimate what she is capable of. "They think I can do all these different things," Clark said, adding that fetal alcohol and Down syndromes differ, even though people sometimes assume they are the same. She and Howanach also try to help people better understand how drinking during pregnancy harms youngsters, and explain ways fetal alcohol children and adults can be helped. The best way to avoid fetal alcohol syndrome is for pregnant women not to drink at all, they said. Between speaking engagements, Clark keeps busy with her Luv Yums business and takes intermediate classes in sign language. Apostrophe is a quarterly publication sent to more than 4,500 people, businesses and agencies in Montana. Editor Jim Tracy said the winter issue is chock-full of Great Falls connections. The cover photo of Clark was taken by Great Falls photographer Scott Fairbanks. A feature on Great Falls artist Jennifer Bodner can be found on page 12, and a self-portrait by Leif Babcock of Bozeman can be seen on page 18, hanging in the office of Bob Norbie, chief executive of Great Falls-based Special Olympics Montana. For more information, visit the magazine's Web site at www.apostrophemagazine.com, or call 800-432-6145. Subscriptions are $10 per year. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/9b290e8c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 16:03:11 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 16:09:14 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Ontario: All-Party Committee Examining Mental Health And Addiction Services Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090305220506.04776b00@ncf.ca> [Wonder if this Ontario government committee or some of its members might have some interest in FASD?] http://www.news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2009/02/all-party-committee-examining-mental-health-and-addiction-services.html Ontario All-Party Committee Examining Mental Health And Addiction Services February 24, 2009 4:11 PM Committee Findings to Help Build Long Term Mental Health and Addiction Strategy An all-party committee has been formed by the Ontario legislature to help develop ways to improve access to mental health and addiction services in the province. The Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions - with representatives from all three parties - will work with consumers/survivors, providers, experts and other interested parties to determine the mental health and addiction needs that currently exist. The committee is expected to issue a report in 2010 that will : * Determine the mental health and addiction needs of children and young adults; First Nations, Inuit and M?tis peoples; and seniors * Explore innovative approaches to delivering services in the community * Identify ways to leverage existing opportunities and initiatives within the current mental health and addictions system. The government has also established a Minister's Advisory Group on Mental Health and Addictions made up of consumers, family members, providers and researchers from across the province. It includes a range of perspectives such as children and youth, aboriginal, workplace and women. Input from both committees will be used to develop a long term strategy for mental health and addiction. Investment in community mental health and addictions services will help to reduce ER visits and hospitalizations. QUICK FACTS * The Ontario government is providing $680 million for community mental health services in 2008/09. * The government has allocated about $123 million to 150 substance abuse treatment programs in 2008/09. * The government has allocated about $39 million to problem gambling treatment, prevention and research. LEARN MORE * Find out more about mental health and addiction services in Ontario. * Improving Mental Health And Addiction Services CONTACTS * Andrew Morrison * Communications Branch * 416-314-6197 * media@nullmoh.gov.on.ca * Media Line * Toll-free: 1-888-414-4774 * GTA: 416-314-6197 * media@nullmoh.gov.on.ca * Steve Erwin * Minister?s Office * 416-326-3986 * media@nullmoh.gov.on.ca "It?s time to bring this important issue out of the shadows and shine a light on solutions that address the challenges being faced in the delivery of mental health and addiction services. The all-party select committee and the advisory group provide a wonderful opportunity to ensure the voices of people living with mental illness and addictions are heard and acted upon." ? David Caplan Minister of Health and Long-Term Care -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/940a8cbb/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 16:04:05 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 16:09:19 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Alcohol disorder takes toll Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090305214652.04776b00@ncf.ca> http://www.thestar.com/article/595043 thestar.com Toronto Star Babies & Pregnancy Alcohol disorder takes toll Damage caused by expectant mothers who drink costs Canada $5 billion a year, researchers find March 02, 2009 Emily Mathieu STAFF REPORTER Note: This article has been edited from a previously published version to correct the name of the provincial body twice contacted by the Nugent family in their attempt to secure coverage for dental care and prescription medication. VIDEO: Raising kids with FASD Grandparents Doug and Larraine Nugent have custody of their granddaughters, both of whom have been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. The damage caused by expectant mothers who drink during pregnancy is costing Canada more than $5 billion a year, a report says. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) impacts one in 100 children, or almost 243,000 Canadians, causing low birth weight, restricted growth, physical and mental disability and, in some cases, heart problems. Doctors dealing with the disorder say there is a dire need for more diagnostic services and warn that even with government intervention, FASD will carry a high price tag for generations. "We all know one drink is not going to cause FASD," says Dr. Brenda Stade, the head of the FASD clinic at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital who co-wrote the paper, published in the January edition of the Canadian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. "Bottom line, you should abstain if you can. If you can't, you should go to your family doctor and try to cut down." Eight-year-old Caitlyn Nugent was born addicted to alcohol after her mother sipped vodka coolers throughout her pregnancy. Her 10-year-old sister Chrystal isn't as badly affected but has also been diagnosed with conditions classified under FASD, an umbrella term for a variety of mental, physical and behavioural problems linked to drinking during pregnancy, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. "The children do look normal, but they don't act normal," says their grandfather, Doug Nugent, who with his wife Larraine have raised the girls since they were babies in Toronto. Their son is the girls' father. "There is a lot of confusion about their behaviour ... they are not spoiled brats. It's just brain damage." Some FASD children bear hallmark facial features, including smaller and wide-set eyes, a thin upper lip and no groove between the nose and lip. But many don't, which is why their behaviour is often misunderstood well into adulthood. "These people have been struggling for years and nobody can really recognize their disability," says Stade, who has adopted a child with the disorder. The clinic opened six years ago and diagnoses about 400 patients every year, of all ages. They are expanding to meet demand. The report by the Hospital for Sick Children, the Public Health Agency of Canada and St. Mike's, involved interviews with 250 caregivers of children and adults with FASD on the costs of emergency medical care, health services, education and out-of-pocket spending, including medication and recreational activities. FASD is a recognized disability so the costs of the Ontario Disability Support Program were included. No one knows exactly how much alcohol causes the disorder. To prevent confusion over what could be safe, most experts advise pregnant women not to drink at all. Every child's condition and needs are different and complicated, Stade says. Mental impairment includes behavioural issues, problems learning and impaired social skills and judgment. But many children with the disorder, she says, are socially adept, using small talk to fit in and, given the proper support, can function well in certain positions, including some trades. But getting to that point requires a tremendous amount of support. Doug and his wife are both 57. But, he says, "my retirement started six years ago, once the kids came. I couldn't go out and work full-time." Caitlyn and Chrystal have serious dental problems and "their immune system is zilch," says their grandfather. They both require inhalers and are constantly battling infections. They have had speech and physical therapy and need sensory integration therapy ? essentially exposing them to a barrage of sensations to teach them to respond properly to stimuli. FASD children have trouble focusing, says Doug. "The teachers, they can't understand why the kids are not capable of doing work ... the signal doesn't get through properly." It's easy, Doug says, for outsiders to find fault with a child affected by FASD. Caitlyn and Chrystal have difficulty understanding social cues, it's hard for them to play with other children and they are prone to severe mood swings. "I'm a little bit scared for the girls when they start the next level of school. The social aspects of the higher-level schools scare me, because these children are so vulnerable," he says. Of their teenage years, Larraine says: "I'm really dreading them because they are such followers ... it doesn't matter how much you try to streetwise them. It is going to be hard." She and her husband's main goal is to raise awareness and get the government to provide funding for early services and therapies for kids with FASD and their families. That is why they invited the Star into their home to speak about the girls. They have applied twice to the province's Family Responsibility Office to get coverage for dental care and prescription medication. They were rejected both times, told incorrectly that FASD is not a recognized disability and that being grandparents disqualifies them. "I would love to tell the government to live with these children themselves," says their grandfather. "It's banging your head up against a brick wall, trying to get acceptance for these children ... they need assistance." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/5e81f885/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 6 21:49:16 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 6 21:53:04 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] PRIMA Workshops: various Canadian locations May - Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090306214459.01e50880@ncf.ca> Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:04:54 -0500 From: Cathryn Fortier Subject: FW: PRIMA Workshops Please see below for a very interesting training. It is a train the trainer however and there is an expectation that participants return home and train others. From: Haughn, Kim [mailto:khaughn@pppeso.on.ca] Sent: March 6, 2009 11:00 AM Subject: PRIMA Workshops This message is being forwarded on behalf of Stella Andriopoulos, Executive Director, The Perinatal Partnership Program of Eastern and Southeastern Ontario (PPPESO) Dear all: We are holding train-the-trainer workshop on problematic substance use in pregnancy for providers in various locals in Canada. This is a Friday/Saturday event. All costs for participation are paid, e..g., air fare to the closest location, hotel, meals etc. This is made possible from a contribution through the Public Health Agency or Canada, Health Canada. Main Pro C credits are available. Our curriculum covers a woman-centered approach to PSUKP in pregnancy, stages of change theory, cocaine, cannabis, opiates, alcohol and other nicotine. We also discuss prevention of FASD and management of the child with FASD It is expected that all participants return to their local community to teach their colleagues. All slides sets and materials will be provided. Space is very limited and long waiting list can exists. All hotels have been booked. Here are the sites: Saskatoon May 1 and 2 Montreal June 5 and 6 ? workshop in French Winnipeg, June 12 and 13 Halifax September 11 and 12 Thunder Bay October 16 and 17 St. John?s November 6 and 7 WE will be doing workshops in Yellowknife and Inuvik, NWT in March 2010; Iqaluit in April 2010. More northern locations will be announced. For more information contact prima.medicine@utoronto.ca Please pass on to provider colleagues. The flyer will soon be ready. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090306/eb3a5b46/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 7 20:40:43 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 7 20:46:10 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Learning and Behavior Improve in Alcohol-Affected Children Following Intervention Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090307203819.01ecc5a0@ncf.ca> http://healthnewsdigest.com/news/Children_s_Health_200/Learning_and_Behavior_Improve_in_Alcohol-Affected_Children_Following_Intervention_printer.shtml From HealthNewsDigest.com Children's Health Learning and Behavior Improve in Alcohol-Affected Children Following Intervention By Mar 3, 2009 - 4:06:21 PM (HealthNewsDigest.com) - ATLANTA ? Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FAS(D)), including those with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), benefit from a comprehensive intervention that includes individualized instruction with children and provision of tools for parents, caretakers and teachers that support learning and improvements in behavior. The study was published in the February 2009 Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. The Math Interactive Learning Experience (MILE) curriculum is a comprehensive intervention program that was tested on children between the ages of three and 10 years with neurodevelopmental problems resulting from prenatal alcohol and drug exposure, FAS(D). Symptoms of FAS(D) range from cognitive impairment and poor academic functioning to behavioral disorders that are difficult to treat. MILE provided the structure and support necessary for children, and provided caregivers and teachers with tools to reduce over-arousal and difficult behavior. In a previous study, participants were assessed before the intervention and immediately following completion. However, the effects of interventions are often not persistent, particularly when there is neurological damage. In this follow-up study, participants were re-contacted and reassessed at six months post completion to determine if positive results on math functioning and child behavior would persist after treatment discontinuation. "It has been difficult to find educational categories and methodologies that fit these children's needs," says Claire D. Coles, PhD, study author and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the Marcus Autism Center Fetal Alcohol and Drug Exposure Center. "This study demonstrates that using the appropriate teaching methods with children and having committed and consistent involvement of both the school system and the caretakers creates an environment that supports learning for children who have impairments that make schoolwork difficult," says Coles. The clinical trial was conducted at the Marcus Autism Center, an affiliate of Emory-Children's Center and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The children were randomly assigned to a math intervention or to a standard psycho-educational contrast group. The math intervention group received six weeks of individualized instruction using the MILE model. Recognizing the importance of the family and the educational environment, the MILE model involved caregivers and teachers. In addition to learning how to provide learning readiness and behavioral improvement, caretakers were educated on the developmental impact of prenatal alcohol exposure. Caretakers also were instructed on how to find social services for children who needed support with their medical regimens or with therapeutic interventions to facilitate their socio-emotional adjustment. Teachers were provided with information about FASD and the MILE methods. The six-month follow-up confirmed that both math skills and behavior of alcohol-affected children are improved significantly by interventions designed to meet their specific learning and behavior needs. "The results of these studies represent a hopeful beginning in designing and evaluating interventions for alcohol-affected individuals and their families" says Coles. This study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Cooperative Agreement U84-CCU320162-02. Also involved in the study were Julie A. Kable and Elles Taddeo, Marcus Autism Center; the Emory-Children's Center and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Reference: "Math Performance and Behavior Problems in Children Affected by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Intervention and Follow-Up"; Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2009 Marcus Autism Center is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities, treating more than 3,200 children a year. Marcus Autism Center offers services with generous philanthropic support from community leaders and funding from local and state governments. The Marcus Autism Center staff of highly trained pediatric professionals is supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Marcus Autism Center is committed to helping children realize their greatest potential. www.HealthNewsDigest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090307/7ed1d374/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 16 18:52:22 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 16 18:03:16 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] FASD on CBC radio TODAY World report & World at 6 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090316174536.03e58170@ncf.ca> Monday March 16 Message from B.C. About a doctor and a law suit on alcohol If you check out the CBC website - radio side - World report you can hear a story by Betsy Trumpener - they will also have info on the World at 6:00pm tonight - on the radio side. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ Click on program World Report or World at 6 and Audio Listen to the latest show You can also listen to past shows From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 17 13:46:12 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 17 12:53:14 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Doctor proposes suing alcohol companies over FAS damage Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090317124600.03e1ef98@ncf.ca> [This was what was talked about on CBC radio yesterday. You can still hear it on the web.] http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/03/16/fetal-alcohol-syndrome-sue.html cbcnews.ca Health Doctor proposes suing alcohol companies over FAS damage Last Updated: Monday, March 16, 2009 | 1:10 PM ET CBC News [Photo] Dr. Marie Hay is calling for class-action lawsuits against alco Dr. Marie Hay is calling for class-action lawsuits against alcohol companies. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC) A pediatrician in northern British Columbia wants liquor and beer makers to help pay for the damage caused when pregnant women drink. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, refers to a range of disabilities that are seen in people whose mothers drank alcohol while they were pregnant. Dr. Marie Hay of Prince George has diagnosed thousands of children harmed by fetal alcohol consumption. Hay's patient files document thousands of children hurt by exposure to alcohol. She said many now face: * Anxiety. * Depression. * Autism. * Schizophrenia. * Mental retardation. * Learning disabilities. * Conduct disorders. * Trouble with the law. * Attempted suicides. Prince George parents Skylar Dennis and Faren Piwniuk are getti [Photo] Prince George parents Skylar Dennis and Faren Piwniuk are getting assistance from a program that supports parents with FASD. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC) The only way to stem the tide of damage is to stem the flow of alcohol by going after alcohol companies, Hay believes. She said lawsuits against tobacco companies helped cut down on smoking and pay for damage to the health of smokers, adding it's time to do the same with alcohol. "Somebody has to draw a line in the sand and say this is such a health problem, we have to stop it." Sklar Dennis, 25, of Prince George said his brain and body were harmed by alcohol. "I remember from a very young age that my mum was still into drinking alcohol," Dennis recalled. "I remember her trying to offer me some." One of Dennis's sons has also been affected. The boy has a speech impediment, is partly deaf in one ear and is mentally slower than others. "It's definitely frustrating," his father said. So far, no one has taken up Hay's idea of taking alcohol companies to court, and no companies have responded to the proposal. Health Canada doesn't have statistics on the number of babies born with the condition or whether the number of pregnant women drinking is on the rise. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090317/0aa44292/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 18 23:26:22 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 18 22:33:09 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Ontario Invitation to participate in online FASD survey Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090318222608.045265e0@ncf.ca> Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:39:15 -0400 From: FASD Education Survey Subject: Invitation to participate in online FASD survey Parents, Caregivers, Service Providers, and Teachers of Children and Adolescents with FASD Speak Out about Educational Services and Supports in Ontario Schools You are invited to participate in an online survey of service providers for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) about educational services and supports in Ontario. This research is supported by the Intervention and Support Working Group, FASD Stakeholders for Ontario. Specifically, we are looking for parents, caregivers, service providers, and teachers of children and adolescents who are currently enrolled in Ontario elementary or secondary schools or have left school within the last 6 months. In this on-line survey, you will be asked about the educational services and supports for these individuals, how they were obtained, and recommendations for teachers and administrators. This survey should take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and your responses are confidential as only the researchers will have access to the data. The results of this study on educational services and supports for students with FASD in Ontario schools will be used to prepare recommendations for action to the FASD stakeholders. The report will be available on the website of the FASD Stakeholders of Ontario (www.fasdontario.ca). This survey will be accessible until Monday April 13, 2009. If you are a parent or caregiver and would like to participate, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RGrUkO4cgvm4BLKx2IF4dA_3d_3d If you are a service provider or teacher and would like to participate, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=atUeMDVCKsOS2E4OyGE8dg_3d_3d Please forward this message on to those in your networks who may be interested in participating in this survey. We would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you would like more information about this study, feel free to contact Cheryll Duquette and Shari Orders at FASDeducationsurvey@gmail.com. Thank you. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090318/5ed0cb90/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 18 23:50:48 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 18 23:03:08 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Eye test could help diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090318224639.044f34c8@ncf.ca> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090317/fasd_090317/20090317?hub=Health CTV.ca Health Eye test could help diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome Updated Tue. Mar. 17 2009 5:16 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff Diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in children has always been notoriously difficult. Now, Canadian researchers have developed what they say is a simple and accurate test. FASD includes a range of disorders caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Milder forms do not always carry the hallmarks of severe fetal alcohol syndrome, such as distinctive facial malformations and growth restrictions. Yet FASD still causes lifelong cognitive and developmental disabilities and behavioural problems. It's considered the leading cause of these disabilities in Canada, yet often goes undiagnosed because there is no one clinical feature that identifies the disorder. Until now, there has been no accurate laboratory test to aid diagnosis, but that may soon change. James Reynolds, a professor at the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. has developed a test that he believes can pinpoint those children with the disorder. Reynolds has found that children exposed to alcohol in utero have slower eye movements than healthy children. His eye that requires patients to track dots flashed on a computer screen. The children are instructed to either look toward or away from a light that appeared in their peripheral visual field. He's found that FASD children have much longer reaction times to initiate eye movement both towards and away from the flashes. "This simple test tells us a lot about what may be going on in the brain," he tells CTV News. "It tells us there is a brain injury." "It's simple, it's non-invasive, it's objective, and it doesn't require decades of specialized training to carry it out. And it's affordable." After initial testing of the eye test on a small group of children, Reynolds is now crisscrossing the country testing more than 200 children in nine different Ontario and Alberta locations. "Establishing a mobile laboratory allowed us to go where the kids are, and carry out these experiments in community settings," he says. As they test more children, Reynolds' team is building a database of the results. Once the team can establish what 'typical' eye movement is, they can better identify the signature characteristics among the spectrum of disorders. "Now we know that the results of eye movement testing are consistent across different geographical locations - something that is absolutely critical if this type of testing is to be widely applicable." The test results are highlighted today in an online article in the European Journal of Neuroscience. Dr. Brenda Stade of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto says that as many as a quarter of the children she sees at her FASD clinic don't have typical outward signs of the disorder. She's excited that this simple test could change that. "I think in two to three years, this will become an accepted test for fetal alcohol disorders," says Stade. While the test won't be available for general use until researchers complete the studies to further define its accuracy, they are fairly certain they have found a way to identify a young brain has been scarred by alcohol. Researchers add that because the eye problems that the test looks for last throughout one's lifetime, the test can also be used to find adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders who have never received a proper diagnosis. Ten-year-old Crystal was part of the study. For years, her grandparents didn't know what was wrong with her. "She was definitely delayed, she couldn't listen, she couldn't reason," recalls her grandfather Doug Nugent. "She used to lie there kicking and punching the bed, banging her head." Now diagnosed, Crystal is getting treatment for her disorder and is doing well. But her grandparents know many others who were missed, wrongly treated for attention disorders or even autism. "A lot of kids are misdiagnosed," says Nugent. "These children, they need a proper diagnosis they need proper intervention, they need help." With a report by CTV's Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090318/c01f48bc/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 18 23:56:28 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 18 23:03:10 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Brain abnormality found in boys with ADHD Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090318225253.03e38428@ncf.ca> From another list http://www.physorg.com/news156519731.html Physorg.com Brain abnormality found in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder March 17th, 2009 in Medicine &Health / Psychology &Psychiatry Researchers trying to uncover the mechanisms that cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder have found an abnormality in the brains of adolescent boys suffering from the conditions, but not where they expected to find it. Boys with either or both of these disorders exhibited a different pattern of brain activity than normally developing boys when they played a simple game that sometimes gave them a monetary reward for correct answers, according to a new study by a University of Washington research team. The research focused on two brain areas, the striatum and anterior cingulate cortex. The striatal region is a network of structures in the mid brain that motivates people to engage in pleasurable or rewarding behavior. The anterior cingulate is higher in the brain and normally activates when an expected reward stops. However, this process, called extinction, doesn't occur, at least as quickly, in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity or conduct disorders. Instead, the striatal region continues to be activated, said Theodore Beauchaine, a UW associate professor of psychology and senior author of the paper. "When children engage in impulsive behavior they are looking to stimulate themselves and have fun. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are always looking to have fun and that is what gets them in trouble," he said. "A behavior should stop when the reward stops. When you stop the reward for children with these disorders, they continue to focus on the reward long afterward and the anterior cingulate does not appear to become activated." Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common mental disorders among children, affecting between 3 and 5 percent of school-age youngsters, or an estimated 2 million. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activity in 19 boys with either or both disorders and 11 normally developing boys. The adolescents ranged in age from 12 to 16. Their brains were scanned while they played the game. The boys looked at a screen and there was a button under each of their thumbs. When a light flashed on the left or right side of the screen they were instructed to press the button on that side. The screen lit up very fast, up to 100 times a minute. The boys received five cents for each correct response and could win up to $50. They were not penalized for wrong answers and their accumulated winnings showed up on the screen. Each boy had four five-minute blocks of trials. The first and third trials involved opportunities to earn money. The second and fourth trials did not involve winning money, but the boys were told to keep playing the game because the game would change at some point. Beauchaine said there was no difference in the accuracy or speed - the behavioral response - between the two groups. But there was a difference in brain activation. When the non-reward blocks came up the anterior cingulate lit up for normally developing boys, but those with either of the disorders, which frequently co-occur, continued to only show activation in the striatum. "This shows there is an abnormality, but not in the place we expected to find it. We expected to find a difference in the way the striatum functions, but instead found it in anterior cingulate functioning," said Beauchaine. More information: The study appears in the current issue of The Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Source: University of Washington (news : web) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090318/127ba062/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 20 23:29:37 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 20 22:33:07 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Ontario FASD respite survey Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090320222913.03c09f30@ncf.ca> From: "sarah and laurie" Subject: respite survey Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:23:24 -0400 Hello, Please take a few moments to complete an online survey about respite services for families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). We need your information, stories, comments and suggestions to help us lobby the provincial government to recognize the FASD community's need for respite support. Whether or not you receive respite now we NEED your input. This survey is only for Ontario residents. Your responses are confidential as only the researchers will have access to the data. This research is supported by the Intervention and Support Working Group, FASD Stakeholders for Ontario. The results of this study on respite services for families affected by FASD will provide the basis for a respite strategy for the FASD stakeholders. This strategy will be outlined in a report that will be available on the website of the FASD Stakeholders of Ontario (www.fasdontario.ca). The survey will be accessible until Monday April 13, 2009. If you are a parent or caregiver and would like to participate, please click on the link below http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=mpkXcnFIvJsTQIE6QuuV2w_3d_3d Please forward this message on to anyone who may be interested in participating in this survey. We would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you would like anymore information about this study please contact Laurie Whyte at whytelaurie@rogers.com. Thank you, Laurie Whyte Respite Consultant FASD Stakeholders Ontario [This survey is also available as an attachment which can be printed and mailed to Laurie. Ask me and I will send it]ER -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090320/92fd2b8c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 22 09:22:36 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 22 08:27:17 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Feds quietly chop money for fetal alcohol program Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090322080543.01e5ff18@ncf.ca> http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/606226 TheStar.com Toronto Star Feds quietly chop money for fetal alcohol program March 21, 2009 Dean Beeby THE CANADIAN PRESS Comments on this story [] (17) OTTAWA ? Federal money earmarked to fight the tragedy of fetal alcohol disorders has been quietly chopped back year after year, says a new report. "Each year the initiative has received only a portion of the dollars allocated," says an internal evaluation. "It is unclear why this cutback has become the norm." The Public Health Agency of Canada has been budgeting $3.3 million each year for its fetal alcohol spectrum disorder initiative, but consistently spends only about two-thirds of the cash, says the report. The evaluation, completed last year, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. The disorder, the result of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, causes a broad range of physical, mental and behavioural disabilities. It's believed to affect 300,000 Canadians, costing about $24,000 annually in social services and health care for each afflicted child, many of whom suffer severe learning disabilities. The federal initiative dates to 1999, and the $205,000 internal evaluation by Public Works investigators examined spending since April 2004, including some projects extending into this year. Investigators concluded the initiative is badly needed and should continue, but program funding has been unpredictable, despite commitments in the agency's annual budgets. "Even the funds that are released ... are done so gradually throughout the year (that) managers are uncertain about the budget they have to work with until the final quarter of the fiscal year," says the report. Projects funded under the initiative take about 11 months to get approved, with most of the time taken up awaiting the OK from senior managers. And in 2006-2007, officials were forced to return $300,000 because they couldn't get a green light to order key research, which the report says is sorely needed in Canada. In other years, money that might have similarly lapsed was hastily provided to the provinces to avoid returning the cash to federal coffers, without officials properly taking into account the initiative's national goals. The federal initiative is small compared with some $27 million spent by the provinces and territories each year on fetal alcohol disorders, which were first identified in the medical literature in 1973. However, more than half that sum is spent by British Columbia ($10 million) and Manitoba ($7.5 million), while Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador spend nothing at all, the report found. Health Canada also contributes $1.7 million annually to fetal alcohol programs through its First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. Each individual damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure requires an estimated $1.5 million in services and programs over a lifetime, say the authors, extrapolating from U.S.-based research. The prevention of even one case not only averts a personal tragedy but can cut social-service costs significantly. The report also notes that Health Canada's position ? that there is no safe amount of alcohol that can be consumed during pregnancy ? was not clearly understood by almost two-thirds of Canadians surveyed in a 2006 poll, suggesting more education is needed. Investigators found as well that "information on the projects funded by the contributions fund made available to the regions has not been collected over the course of the initiative in a systematic and centralized way," making any evaluation of effectiveness difficult. The Public Health Agency of Canada did not respond to questions about why money has been cut repeatedly from the fetal-alcohol initiative. But a spokeswoman said the program will continue with its $3.3 million budget in 2009-2010. "The FASD Initiative has a full work plan for the coming fiscal year," Jirina Vlk said in an email. She added the agency has "undertaken numerous activities in response to the recommendations" of the report, including meetings with the provinces and other departments this year to better co-ordinate efforts. Comments on this story are now closed Commenting Guidelines Social programs I always considered Canadians to be politically more astute than the Americans; I now have doubts. The Americans albeit after eight horrendous years got rid of the Republicans and any possibility of a Bush Clone and his policies continuing. Canadians on the other hand re-elected Harper a Bush clone. It is amazing how much influence Bush had and possibly has on Harper. Submitted by buttercup at 10:29 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 FAS is a serious problem. Like it or not taxpayers will be responsible in one way or another for each person born with FAS. In school they will need extra services. They will most likely live in a group home and be supported by a disability income. Unfortunately many will end up in jail. Most women who have these children don't have a pot to piss in so good luck getting any money out of them. Submitted by mytwocentsworth at 10:23 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 No mention of what this program is. Research, education or what. Health and social programs are a Provincial responsibility and they receive money through the Health and Social transfers. For research. FAS is caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Education. Any woman who doesn't know that drinking during pregnancy can cause damage to the foetus should be permitted to have children. So until I know just what this program actually is all about I will reserve judgement. Submitted by RJ McCrae at 10:05 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 You created the problem, You pay for it. Need money? Fine every woman AND man who have a biological child with FAS. Take that money and funnel it into these programs. Charge them with criminal negligence causing lifelong disability. That's what it is. Submitted by stargazer at 9:24 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Doing things 'quietly' and hoping nobody notices is the only way the Tories can further their agenda. Careful scrutiny and debate usually kills their initiatives. Submitted by aahhrrgg at 8:29 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Really i dont blame the gov.t for cutting this programme. if the parents dont want to quite drinking the gov.t cant stop them. This is quite common in a welfare state such as we have. Submitted by ef at 8:16 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 WHAT????????? There was funding specifically for FAS????? WHERE WAS THIS MONEY GOING since FAS is covered under the money the government allocates to Special Education!!!!!! Looks like some people are taking tax payer money for themselves. If this money was for Research then that's a waste of money because any woman wishing to have children would by now, KNOW the effects of alcohol on a fetus. Give me a break.....this is just another payout to well-connected people. Submitted by moss67 at 7:38 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Make the companies that are licenced to distribute booze in the country colectively resposible for directly looking after their victims. When they start paying for the damage their products cause, they won't even notice the insignificant taxes they are paying. Submitted by Robert W at 7:20 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Heartless and UnCanadian It is heartless and unCanadian not to provide services for the weakest and the victims amongst us. I just can never understand where this small mindedness and mean spirited attitude comes from within the Conservative Party. We expect our government to make ethical decisions and support our fellow Canadian in need. This government finds new ways to be petty and to shoot themselves in the foot. Submitted by alan28 at 7:10 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Licenced to provide the best care for children Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorder really involves the heartless destruction of an innocent fragile baby by a self-destructive alcoholic mother. No matter how much money is spent on the poor infant, nothing can really cure the problem once the poor child is born. The problem must be addressed before it begins. In other words, SOMEHOW, we have to get the message across to women that they must put the interests of their children FIRST. Unfortunately, too many alcoholics probably conceive in a hazy drunken stupour. We have to start taking the lives of children seriously before they are conceived and born. We need licences to prove we have the knowledge and judgment to drive a car in order to avoid harm to others. Maybe it is time to insist on licences for having children because they can suffer so drastically at the hands of ignorant parents. First prove that you can care for them, afford them, guide and educate them. It is a privilege to be a parent, not a thoughtless right. Submitted by veeh at 7:09 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Funding cuts Funding cuts for this program is so wrong on so many levels. In the long run, the government will only end up spending more money for health and social services costs. Submitted by angel.c at 6:06 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 RAGE... ...I has it. This is an issue that needs, and deserves, attention (i.e. funding)! Submitted by hiboucornu at 6:06 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Governmental Hipocracy Afflicting roughly 1 out of 100 Canadians and our government can only muster a measly 3.3 million for research? Are they in denial or the pockets of the peddlers of the only legal drugs on the streets? I thought protecting our children was one of the more fundamental responsabilities of government! If we can't cure their parents, at least make an attempt to give them a fighting chance. Submitted by conehead at 5:32 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 FAS FAS does horrible damage, and this is not widely known by the public. A portion of LCBO and other such merchants of misery profits should be expended for the medical costs. Young children are subjected to a life of some misery by the consumption of alcohol by pregnant Mothers. Education should be much amplified, since most people are not even aware of the horror of FAS. Durgan Submitted by Durgan at 5:10 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Women who tend to drink alcohol during pregnancy shouldn't have babies in the first place. I don't see why the government should pay to repair easily preventable conditions as fetal alcohol syndrome. Submitted by ASMIB at 4:27 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Good move Can't believe they were wasting money there in the first place. Submitted by DobberHockey.com at 4:08 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 Conservatives putting their ideology ahead instead of programs meant to help children suffering from CAS. Also we need a law that will prohibit any pregnant woman from consuming any alcohol. Submitted by Vote NDP in the next federal/provincial election at 3:42 PM Saturday, March 21 2009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090322/45a8e82c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 25 23:01:52 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 25 22:09:09 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Sterling Clarren joins Lateline: Australia Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090325220141.03d5cae8@ncf.ca> [Thanks to Brian Philcox for sending this] http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2525239.htm Lateline. Lateline Business Sterling Clarren joins Lateline Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 24/03/2009 Reporter: Tony Jones One of the world's leading experts on the impact of alcohol on unborn babies, Professor Sterling Clarren, joins Lateline to discuss foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Professor Clarren is the CEO and scientific director of the Canada Northwest Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network. He is also the Robert A Aldrich professor of paediatrics at the University of Washington, and he has testified about Foetal Alcohol Syndrome before the US Congress. Video Sterling Clarren joins Lateline Transcript TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Tonight's guest is Sterling Clarren. He is one of the world's leading experts on the impact of alcohol on unborn babies. Professor Clarren is the CEO and scientific director of the Canada Northwest Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network. He's also the Robert A. Aldrich Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. He became well known in the United States after he gave evidence to Congress about the impact of foetal alcohol syndrome. I spoke to him in Seattle a short time ago. Sterling Clarren, thanks for joining us. STERLING CLARREN, PEDIATRICS, UNI. OF WASHINGTON: Oh, it's a pleasure. TONY JONES: Now, we've just seen in the earlier story how an Australian woman, Elizabeth Russell, felt compelled to travel all the way to the United States to seek you out to get you to do a diagnosis of her son. Has it happened before, because it seems that people are reaching out to try and find out what's wrong with their children, when they see there's a series of serious problems and they - no one has been able to put a finger on what's actually wrong? STERLING CLARREN: Right, that's exactly the situation. So, I like to say that foetal alcohol syndrome is primarily a condition of mysterious maladaptation. It's clear that the person is not doing well in life. But it isn't clear why. And most people have done the usual things: they've seen doctors, they've sought the advice of mental health folks, they've thought about learning problems or attention deficit, they may have tried medications. And yet the maladaptation remains. And of course, significant maladaptation can occur for many causes. But with foetal alcohol syndrome, the cause is cognitive. These people have multiple problems with reasoning, memory, planning and so on. And each individual part of their constellation may be different from the next child or the next individual with foetal alcohol. And each individual part might not be very severely abnormal. But when you put all of those pieces together, it combines to a serious deficit. TONY JONES: Does it surprise you to learn how little is known in comparatively advanced countries with good medical systems like Australia where these diagnoses are almost unknown? It's very hard for the medical fraternity here to get their heads around this problem. STERLING CLARREN: Absolutely. And it's - no, it's not surprising at all. It's - it remains a problem everywhere around the world. In part because the understanding of this subtle form of brain damage doesn't come from any specialty alone. And while it is a medical diagnosis and needs a doctor to make the final diagnosis, the bulk of the work is actually not done by medical professionals; it's done by psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, who have to understand the brain from their own perspective. And then you have to assemble all of those parts together to really see the full spectrum of difficulty. TONY JONES: So, is there, do you believe, a known safe quantity of alcohol for women in the early stages of pregnancy, for women who may not even know that they are pregnant? STERLING CLARREN: Well, it's - it's sort of like drunk driving, you know. It's not an absolute scale, it's a relative scale. The more you drink and then drive, the higher your risk of having an accident. But of course, many people, I guess luckily, get drunk, get behind the wheel and get home safely. But the more you drink, the higher your risk; the less you drink, the lower your risk. At some point, the state has put a line in the sand and said, "Above this line of alcohol in your blood it's illegal for you to drive a car." But people below that line on a dark night in an unusual circumstance might still be impaired. It's the same thing. Women who drink voluminously, who get drunk, who binge drink, place their foetuses at significant risk. But there are foetuses who get through that OK. Women who drink less put their babies at less risk; but they never put their babies at zero risk. TONY JONES: How critical is that then, that early period of pregnancy? Because I've actually heard suggestions that there could be a window of as little as one day that could make all the difference. STERLING CLARREN: Well, that comes from our research, actually, but it's a little bit of an overstatement. Keep in a mind when a woman has missed her first period, she's actually about two weeks pregnant. And during that first 10 days or so, the developing embryo is floating through the fallopian tube and is not directly connected to the mother's blood line. We think during that very early stage, unless women drink overwhelmingly, the embryo is probably protected. But on about the 10th day, four days before she's missed her first period, the placenta starts to develop, the blood connection between the embryo and the mother develops, and at that point, things change and alcohol gets into that system quite dramatically. It turns out that full blown foetal alcohol syndrome, as someone might've explained on this show already, has to do with the characteristics that are facial features. A couple of those facial features do seem to be very point specific and occur in humans on the 19th or 20th day of pregnancy. So if you don't drink exactly at that time, you won't get some of the facial features, and if you don't get some of the facial features, people don't get to the final diagnosis of foetal alcohol syndrome. But the brain damage that occurs with foetal alcohol syndrome can occur without the face. And that brain damage occurs incrementally through pregnancy, from the very beginning to the very end. And really, the brain can be damaged at any time. TONY JONES: What sort of physical and neurological attributes are associated with the children who do suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome? STERLING CLARREN: Well, alcohol changes the structure of the brain, and it's an amazing drug. It changes every aspect of brain development. It changes the number of neurons, it changes the organisation of neurons within the brain, it changes the wires, it can alter the myelin, the fatty tissue that insulates the connecting tissues, it can change the connections themselves. It can change neuro-chemistry in the brain as well. It can change the chemicals that relate to mental health conditions like dopamine and serotonin. What can it do to the brain? Kind of anything it wants to do. The lesions however are very subtle and on the current level of imaging - MRIs, CT scans - most of the time we don't see the structural anomalies. These are now becoming apparent on much more sophisticated research techniques, but they're not yet available clinically. So, to look at the brain, if you will, we use this large battery of tests. And by looking at all the different ways the brain can function - cognitively, processing, motor skills, sensory deficits - and kind of put all that together, you begin to see a pattern of diffuse brain damage. TONY JONES: But you obviously see behavioural patterns, you obviously see difficulties for these young children in learning, in getting through life in a way that would lead them to success in many areas? STERLING CLARREN: Right. So, it's a line, isn't it? First you have brain structure that's altered; that leads to brain processing difficulties; and then we see that in behavioural change, which then leads to failure in the community. TONY JONES: Last night, we broadcast a story about the drinking culture among Indigenous people in a remote town in Western Australia. A local doctor there said he sees young FAS-affected mothers who are now giving birth to FAS-affected children. So there's an inter-generational aspect to this. Does this correlate with what you've seen in North America? STERLING CLARREN: Absolutely. We did a study about 15 years ago looking for the birth mothers of children who came to clinic. Until we actually started the study, we hadn't actually noticed that 80 per cent of the children who came to clinic were in foster adoptive care. And after we noticed this and started asking our colleagues, we found that that was the situation pretty much everywhere. And when we went back and actually tried to find the mothers of these children, about three years after diagnoses, about 25 per cent of those mothers were dead and among the 50 per cent of the mothers who we found and interviewed, we estimated about half of them had foetal alcohol spectrum disorder themselves. So it's absolutely becoming a multi-generational situation now. TONY JONES: And have you worked out techniques to come up with a way of measuring the extent of it within communities, because this seems to be enormously difficult. This has not been achieved in Australia, and yet the belief is that it's becoming increasingly widespread. STERLING CLARREN: Well, the way, you know, we diagnose most conditions, the way we can tell you how much cancer's in a community, or asthma's in a community or heart disease is in the community, is we count the number of people who come to clinic and get those diagnoses. Since we haven't built the diagnostic capacity to do FAS, we can't make the same comments about FAS. And until we actually have clinics carefully diagnosing people in communities, one at a time, we really won't know the answer to a question like that. But the capacity is woefully inadequate, and that's true in the United States and in Canada, just as it is in Australia. The capacity simply isn't there. TONY JONES: But you have actually put together inter-disciplinary teams ... STERLING CLARREN: Yes. TONY JONES: ... which (inaudible) to go into communities to make diagnoses. Is that the first step? Is that what is necessary to begin the measurement of how widespread this is? STERLING CLARREN: I think that's absolutely critical. And not only do you put together diagnostic teams, but those teams then provide treatment templates for the kids, so that you take that same information that helped you make a diagnosis of brain injury. That information can then be turned right around to talk about a treatment plan. You also can think about kids who have this condition as bio-markers for their mothers. Every time you find a child who has foetal alcohol, you've identified a birth mother who is at risk to make more children with this condition and is probably a patient herself. So, from my perspective, everything starts with clinics. These have to be multi-disciplinary clinics, they have to be well trained, they have to know what they're doing, they have to be able to make diagnoses that are the same as other clinics so that when we go to government, we can say that these clinics all found the same thing. If there's political will and medical interest, it can be built. TONY JONES: Yes, because presumably and briefly, this does feed through entire communities. We mentioned before the inter-generational aspect indicates that, but also, it must affect dramatically the ability of children to learn at school, to get jobs, to have children themselves who don't abuse alcohol, and so on and so forth. STERLING CLARREN: Right. Absolutely. Well - and if you're in a community where there's a lot of drinking, you put more foetuses just at risk. If you really turn the question round and said, "How much should you drink if you want to damage your child? If you were really trying to do it?" The way you would drink is you would drink, you know, six to 10 drinks at a time; you would do that once or twice a week for at least the first several weeks in pregnancy. High, occasional binge drinking. Now, that's learned behaviour. You have to be in a community where people teach you that. TONY JONES: Well, Sterling Clarren, we have run out of time. We'll have to leave you there, but we thank you very much for joining what is growing debate here in this country and doing so by bringing so much knowledge to the table. We thank you very much. STERLING CLARREN: You're very welcome and good luck to all of you on this important topic in your country. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090325/12801b1a/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 27 16:31:23 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Fri Mar 27 17:45:14 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] In praise of older mothers Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090327153111.03d1ac00@ncf.ca> "...many children in the care of grandparents have been removed from their parents' homes due to drugs and alcohol, making such issues as fetal alcohol syndrome a common challenge...." IN PRAISE OF OLDER MOTHERS Nicholas K?hler. Maclean's. Toronto: Feb 23, 2009. Vol. 122, Iss. 6; pg. 51, 1 pgs [Headnote] How a 60-year-old new mother is part of a positive trend Though he's unfailingly polite, Tony Hayer is fed up. Last week, two days after his 60-year-old aunt Ranjit became the oldest woman in Canada ever to give birth, delivering twin sons, the newspapers started calling. Incessantly. And Tony, genuinely perplexed by the interest, has had enough. "It's a personal decision," he says. Nor is his aunt's ardour for children a product of her Punjabi background, a media conceit Tony particularly dislikes. "It's not specifically a cultural thing," he says. "They're independent, they're going to take care of the children and that's it - it's just a normal family. It just happens to be, they're 60. That's all." Ranjit and her boys, Manjot and Gurpreet, remain in hospital, healthy but suffering the hangover of a bumpy pregnancy. Her husband, Jagir, also 60, is overjoyed, long in tooth or not. Reportedly a warehouse worker, he saved for years so that Ranjit, who was refused the treatment in Canada because of her age, could undergo in vitro fertilization in their native India. Last year she became pregnant with triplets. Back home in Calgary, she ran into complications. Doctors terminated one embryo, then delivered the twins seven weeks early due to severe bleeding. But with the immediate health concerns of mother and sons now apparenty resolved, whither the Hayer family? It's a future even Ranjit's specialist, Calgary obstetrician Colin Birch, felt compelled to discuss publicly last week. "I couldn't imagine if I was 65 having two five-year-olds running around," he told the CBC. "The energy to do that is incredible." It was one uneasy reaction among many. Yet older men have long fathered children (Charlie Chaplin at 73, Anthony Quinn at 81, to mine Hollywood lore), and grandparents have parented children for millennia (the Prophet Muhammad, Sir Isaac Newton and Barack Obama, to name three). Now that technology permits older women to bear children, it's not easy to sustain an argument denying them the option. "The main concern is, at 60 years old, how long are you going to be around for your child?" says Aron Shlonsky, of the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "But that's pretty fair to ask with almost any kind of parenting situation." And a growing body of research examining the outcomes for children raised by older parents and grandparents suggests Manjot and Gurpreet have rosy futures. Older parents are more mature, better-off financially and can draw upon more deeply rooted social networks than their younger counterparts. Older fathers are more nurturing, older mothers are better at interacting with children, and both aren't likely going anywhere. "The type of person who agrees to this quite daunting undertaking tends to be resourceful, committed, mature - all of the above," says Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor of social work at U of T. Which is good for the children, if not always for those doing the work: studies found that U.S. grandparents raising children demonstrated more depressive symptoms, felt more isolated and were less satisfied with their lives than grandparents who weren't. "It certainly has its toll," says Fuller-Thomson. "Health outcomes aren't necessarily great on the grandparents." But neither is old age for sissies. Already, there are plenty of parents the Hayers' age. A 2001 Statistics Canada study found that over 25,000 children under the age of 14 were being raised by grandparents. As many as 70,000 non-parent family members, most of them grandparents and other older relatives, are now rearing kids, says Betty Cornelius, the founder of Cangrands, a support group for such caregivers. The phenomenon is growing - up 20 per cent between 1991 and 2001- and is often attributed to poverty. Indeed, many children in the care of grandparents have been removed from their parents' homes due to drugs and alcohol, making such issues as fetal alcohol syndrome a common challenge. The Hayers presumably face none of these difficulties. But it's worth noting that research suggests even maltreated children who go on to be raised by grandparents do very well - frequently better than kids placed with younger non-relatives. "In general the outcomes are remarkably good, considering how many losses these children have in their lives," says Fuller-Thomson, who points out the children are more likely to "feel loved" and benefit from the stability of family. Grandparents can even surpass parents, doing more with less. Fuller-Thomson cites one 1995 U.S. study that found not-at-risk children raised by grandparents had similar health and behavioural outcomes to those living with both biological parents, even though grandparents are often more financially strapped. And who's to say Ranjit and Jagir will exhaust their parents so easily? "I see these grandmums out there playing road hockey with their kids," says Fuller-Thomson. "These are unbelievably impressive women. My guess is that somebody who takes on this responsibility at 60 is going into it with their eyes open." And yet not everyone's convinced. "God, is she crazy?" asks Cangrands founder Cornelius, who has been raising her granddaughter for over a decade. "This is a club I didn't sign up for. I'm 60 years old and I'm raising a 15-year-old. I'm hormonal and she's hormonal. It's not pretty. This woman is going to be 75 when she gets her hormonal two teenagers. When she's losing her driver's licence, that kid's going to be going for his." [Sidebar] 'IT'S JUST a normal family. That's all,' said the nephew of new mother Ranjit Hayer. 'SOMEBODY WHO TAKES THIS ON AT 60 IS GOING INTO IT WITH THEIR EYES OPEN' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090327/67a9b18f/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 30 17:09:53 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 30 16:15:06 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] 1.5-million dollar babies Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090330160630.03ad9b20@ncf.ca> Editorial - 1.5-million dollar babies Anonymous. Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Man.: Mar 24, 2009. pg. A.12 It is little wonder that Canada cannot get a good grasp on the extent of its problem with babies born brain damaged due to mothers drinking while pregnant. An evaluation of Ottawa's $3.3-million program has found that only about two-thirds of that money gets dispensed each year. The federal commitment to the problem already is paltry: Manitoba alone pours $7.5 million into fetal alcohol syndrome programs annually, and, at that, its sole diagnostic clinic can assess only half of the cases referred to it. Manitoba's $7.5 million makes up a quarter of the money spent by all provinces on FAS. To date, Canada cannot describe the size of the FAS problem. In the United States, it is estimated that about nine babies in 1,000 exhibit some signs of suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). In Canada, estimates are drawn from a handful of small studies, according to a paper published in 2005 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In an isolated aboriginal community in British Columbia, it was found that about 190 of 1,000 babies were born with FASD; a Manitoba First Nation community was found to have a FASD rate of 55-101/1,000 live births. Neglecting this problem is expensive and self-defeating. Those born with brains damaged by alcohol exposure in utero are "million dollar-plus" babies: A decade ago, specialists estimated that the cost of assisting those living with FAS was $1 million per person. Today, the estimate is closer to $1.5 million. That is the cost, according to U.S. estimates, for the education, health and social programs to support those diagnosed with FAS. The cost for individuals who are not diagnosed or diagnosed late in life is much higher, in personal and monetary terms, because those living with fetal alcohol disorders have a high rate of addictions, mental illness, criminal involvement and dropping out of school. Diagnosing early is critical but better, still, is to prevent this entirely avoidable condition. Experts simply can't say at which point is it safe for pregnant women to consume alcohol, so the best advice is "don't drink." Abstention is the only guarantee a child will not be born with FAS, yet here, too, Ottawa is falling down in making Canadians aware of that core message -- only a third of those surveyed in a 2006 poll recognized that as Health Canada's advice to mothers-to-be. The cuts to the federal funding program are not new, the evaluation indicates. The program has under-spent its $3.3-million budget for at least five years. Manitoba spends more per capita than any of its provincial counterparts and yet this province is wrestling to fully fathom a scourge that marks the brains -- and potential -- of perhaps hundreds of children each year. It appears Canada needs leadership, a role the Harper government should assume. It can do that by boosting its funding toward research and the development of programs necessary to help those with FASD live healthier, more productive lives. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090330/9ba0a80b/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 31 23:07:34 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 31 22:09:09 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Reminder: Ontario Invitation to participate in online FASD & Education survey Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090331220722.039f4488@ncf.ca> From: FASD Education Survey Subject: Reminder notice: Invitation to participate in online FASD survey Hello, To those who have completed the survey, please accept our sincere thanks . For those who haven't yet had a chance, we urge you to take a few minutes to share your experiences with us. We would also appreciate it if you could forward this invitation on to those in your networks within Ontario. The survey will be accessible online until April 13th. With thanks, Shari Orders and Cheryll Duquette Parents, Caregivers, Service Providers, and Teachers of Children and Adolescents with FASD Speak Out about Educational Services and Supports in Ontario Schools You are invited to participate in an online survey of service providers for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) about educational services and supports in Ontario. This research is supported by the Intervention and Support Working Group, FASD Stakeholders for Ontario. Specifically, we are looking for parents, caregivers, service providers, and teachers of children and adolescents who are currently enrolled in Ontario elementary or secondary schools or have left school within the last 6 months. In this on-line survey, you will be asked about the educational services and supports for these individuals, how they were obtained, and recommendations for teachers and administrators. This survey should take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and your responses are confidential as only the researchers will have access to the data. The results of this study on educational services and supports for students with FASD in Ontario schools will be used to prepare recommendations for action to the FASD stakeholders. The report will be available on the website of the FASD Stakeholders of Ontario (www.fasdontario.ca). This survey will be accessible until Monday April 13, 2009. If you are a parent or caregiver and would like to participate, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RGrUkO4cgvm4BLKx2IF4dA_3d_3d If you are a service provider or teacher and would like to participate, please go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=atUeMDVCKsOS2E4OyGE8dg_3d_3d Please forward this message on to those in your networks who may be interested in participating in this survey. We would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you would like more information about this study, feel free to contact Cheryll Duquette and Shari Orders at FASDeducationsurvey@gmail.com. Thank you. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090331/802b8497/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 31 23:20:13 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 31 22:24:10 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Ontario respite survey Reminder Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090331222004.03ccaab8@ncf.ca> Hi My name is Laurie Whyte and I am a consulant investigating respite with the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Stakeholders of Ontario (www.fasdontario.ca) . The Stakeholders are working on developing a strategy to educate the government about the respite needs of families affected by FASD in the province of Ontario. Please take a few moments to complete an online survey about respite services for families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). We need your information, stories, comments and suggestions to help us lobby the provincial government to recognize the FASD community's need for respite support. Whether or not you receive respite now we NEED your input. This survey is only for Ontario residents. Your responses are confidential as only the researchers will have access to the data. This research is supported by the Intervention and Support Working Group, FASD Stakeholders for Ontario. The results of this study on respite services for families affected by FASD will provide the basis for a respite strategy for the FASD stakeholders. This strategy will be outlined in a report that will be available on the website of the FASD Stakeholders of Ontario (www.fasdontario.ca). The survey will be accessible until Monday April 13, 2009. If you are a parent or caregiver and would like to participate, please click on the link below http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=mpkXcnFIvJsTQIE6QuuV2w_3d_3d Please forward this message on to anyone who may be interested in participating in this survey. We would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you would like anymore information about this study please contact Laurie Whyte at whytelaurie@rogers.com. Thank you, Laurie Whyte Respite Consultant FASD Stakeholders Ontario [There is also an email attachment which can be obtained by emailing Laurie and mailed back to her.] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090331/a72fedc7/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 31 23:51:08 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 31 23:03:05 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Victoria FASD conference PowerPoint presentations Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090331225101.039f2890@ncf.ca> http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/ What's New * PowerPoint presentations from the 3rd International FASD Conference are now available. Please click here to access the materials. http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/FASD09.htm The 3rd International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Integrating Research, Policy and Promising Practice Around the World: A Catalyst for Change March 11-14, 2009 The Victoria Conference Centre Victoria, BC, Canada PowerPoint Presentations! These files from the conference are now available for download. Please click below to view the pdf versions. Wednesday, March 11, 2009 FASD in an Animal Model Joanne Weinberg An Epidemiologist Looks at the Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Nancy Day On Research to Policy & Practice Christine Loock Incorporating Evidence into Policy Jocelynn Cook Long term Follow-Up Study of children with FASD in Young Adulthood Hans-Ludwig Spohr Developing an Adult FASD Diagnostic Clinic: The Victoria BC Experience Jonathan Down, Grace Gerry, Kathy Horne The Vancouver and Surrey FASD Collaboration in BC Ruth Annis Thursday, March 12, 2009 Prenatal Diagnosis of FASD ? Is It Possible? Andrew D. Hull Application of Magnetic Resonance Microscopy to an FASD Model Kathleen K. Sulik 3D Facial Imaging Leah Wetherill, Tatiana Foroud FASD, Sensory Processing and Sleep in Young Children Ana Hanlon-Dearman Neurocognitive Performance of Individuals with FASD Across the Lifespan Don Massey, Valerie Massey, Jacqueline Pei Applying the Concept of Neurological Dysregulation Louise Scott Medication Use for Children and Adolescents with FASD: Implications for Individuals, Families, and Providers Dan Dubovsky, Diane Fast Friday, March 13, 2009 Opening Remarks Lorian Hayes Supporting Families of Children and Youth with FASD (MCFD) Jim Luettgen Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Damage in Northern Native Communities: FASD in Lab Mice A Practical School-Based Approach Steven Jacquier, David Gilliam, Judith Kleinfeld Evaluation of the BC Key Worker and Parent Support Program Deborah Rutman Saturday, March 14, 2009 An Evidence Based Model For FASD Prevention: Effectiveness Among Women Who Were Themselves Prenatally Exposed To Alcohol Therese Grant, Janet Huggins, Kieran D. O'Malley, Nancy Whitney The Preschool Assessment in FASD Ana Hanlon-Dearman, Shelley Proven, Brenda Fjeldsted Status of FASD Prevention in Nine Areas in France, and Recommendation to Support FASD Prevention in France Denis Lamblin, Sylvie Kunchten -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090331/694537d2/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 31 23:51:24 2009 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 31 23:03:09 2009 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Victoria FASD conference PowerPoint presentations Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20090331225116.039f2b20@ncf.ca> http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/ What's New * PowerPoint presentations from the 3rd International FASD Conference are now available. Please click here to access the materials. http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/FASD09.htm The 3rd International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Integrating Research, Policy and Promising Practice Around the World: A Catalyst for Change March 11-14, 2009 The Victoria Conference Centre Victoria, BC, Canada PowerPoint Presentations! These files from the conference are now available for download. Please click below to view the pdf versions. Wednesday, March 11, 2009 FASD in an Animal Model Joanne Weinberg An Epidemiologist Looks at the Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Nancy Day On Research to Policy & Practice Christine Loock Incorporating Evidence into Policy Jocelynn Cook Long term Follow-Up Study of children with FASD in Young Adulthood Hans-Ludwig Spohr Developing an Adult FASD Diagnostic Clinic: The Victoria BC Experience Jonathan Down, Grace Gerry, Kathy Horne The Vancouver and Surrey FASD Collaboration in BC Ruth Annis Thursday, March 12, 2009 Prenatal Diagnosis of FASD ? Is It Possible? Andrew D. Hull Application of Magnetic Resonance Microscopy to an FASD Model Kathleen K. Sulik 3D Facial Imaging Leah Wetherill, Tatiana Foroud FASD, Sensory Processing and Sleep in Young Children Ana Hanlon-Dearman Neurocognitive Performance of Individuals with FASD Across the Lifespan Don Massey, Valerie Massey, Jacqueline Pei Applying the Concept of Neurological Dysregulation Louise Scott Medication Use for Children and Adolescents with FASD: Implications for Individuals, Families, and Providers Dan Dubovsky, Diane Fast Friday, March 13, 2009 Opening Remarks Lorian Hayes Supporting Families of Children and Youth with FASD (MCFD) Jim Luettgen Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Damage in Northern Native Communities: FASD in Lab Mice A Practical School-Based Approach Steven Jacquier, David Gilliam, Judith Kleinfeld Evaluation of the BC Key Worker and Parent Support Program Deborah Rutman Saturday, March 14, 2009 An Evidence Based Model For FASD Prevention: Effectiveness Among Women Who Were Themselves Prenatally Exposed To Alcohol Therese Grant, Janet Huggins, Kieran D. O'Malley, Nancy Whitney The Preschool Assessment in FASD Ana Hanlon-Dearman, Shelley Proven, Brenda Fjeldsted Status of FASD Prevention in Nine Areas in France, and Recommendation to Support FASD Prevention in France Denis Lamblin, Sylvie Kunchten -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20090331/78522480/attachment.html