From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 09:48:01 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 09:51:56 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Florida: MD Wants Signage Law in Tampa Bay Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301094755.04591910@ncf.ca> http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/amid-tight-budget-tampa-bay-legislators-keep-goals-focused/1076531 St, Petersburg Times Florida Amid tight budget, Tampa Bay legislators keep goals focused By Cristina Silva, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau In Print: Monday, March 1, 2010 Story Tools TALLAHASSEE ? Call it sausage lite. There is a lot less pork ? money earmarked for local projects - expected to make its way to the Tampa Bay area this year as state lawmakers prepare to wrestle with a $3.2 billion budget shortfall........ A sampling of their priorities this year:...... Personal health: Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa, an orthopedic surgeon, is supporting legislation that would require chain restaurants to post nutrition facts (HB 783). Homan also wants to require liquor vendors to post a sign that warns pregnant women of the dangers of fetal alcohol syndrome (HB 555)...... Cristina Silva can be reached at (850) 224-7263 or csilva@sptimes.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/8b3dacb2/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 11:22:03 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 11:28:33 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Professor Cheryll Duquette receives uOttawa excellence in teaching award [talks FASD] Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301112049.04445d70@ncf.ca> [This is an older article not posted before. The article below does not talk about FASD except to say that it was the topic of Cheryll Duquette's lecture. Cheryll could have talked on another topic but chose FASD for this lecture arranged by the university president for a large audience of university people and some members of the public and followed by a nice lunch. Cheryll is continuing her research on FASD by investigating Post-Secondary Experiences of Adults with FASD - a pilot study first in Ontario. During her lecture she said that her research shows that High school completion depends on educators who know about FASD, accommodations and modifications to the curriculum, students persisting because of "friends", parent support & encouragement & advocacy, and tutoring & home schooling. Parent advocacy involved awareness, information seeking, presenting the case, monitoring, on-line support for their efforts, and accommodations. What is needed: Support for parents: respite and help with advocacy Support for students: one on one, a range of placements including inclusive classrooms and special placements not just for one year Support for research and Prevention: in the school curriculum]Notes by ER http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2010/week3/Friday/122222.htm Exchange Magazine for Business/Economic Development/Entreprenieurs Morning Post Posted January 22 , 2010 Recognition Professor Cheryll Duquette receives uOttawa excellence in teaching award OTTAWA ? Professor Cheryll Ann Duquette is the recipient of the University of Ottawa?s 2009 Award for Excellence in Teaching. She received her award during a special ceremony held yesterday. Since 1976, the University has been giving the Award for Excellence in Teaching to full-time professors nominated by their peers for their outstanding contributions to different aspects of university teaching, such as instructional techniques, program development and course design and curriculum development. Today, Professor Cheryll Duquette (BA, MEd, PhD) of the Faculty of Education gave a lecture entitled Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ? The New Hidden Disability: Perspectives of Adolescents and their Adoptive Parents. A member of the Faculty of Education for over 20 years, Professor Duquette is a recognized expert in the areas of special education and Aboriginal studies. She developed the Native Teacher Education Program, designed to train Aboriginal teachers and help them develop curriculum to complement their specific needs. She also created the On-Site Teacher Education Program, which connects student teachers to local classrooms. A contributor to many publications, this passionate professor has also made a great contribution to the training of many future teachers. Professor Duquette is the author of the award-winning book Students at Risk, written for special education teachers. Her most recent article, ?Becoming a role model: Experiences of native student teachers,? was published in The Alberta Journal of Educational Research. She has authored many other articles, most notably on parental support and integration of students with exceptionalities. Professor Duquette also received the University of Ottawa award for excellence in education in 2006 for her exceptional teaching and solid research program. In 2007, her teaching excellence was recognized by the Province of Ontario with a Leadership Award in Faculty Teaching. This award acknowledges and encourages excellence in teaching in Ontario colleges and universities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/1e80d4cb/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 12:17:09 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 12:29:09 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] =?iso-8859-1?q?Pregnancy_and_alcohol_don=92?= =?iso-8859-1?q?t_mix?= Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301121701.044416e0@ncf.ca> http://www.cornwallseawaynews.com/article-430354-Pregnancy-and-alcohol-dont-mix.html Seaway News Cornwall, Ontario EOHU Health Column Pregnancy and alcohol don?t mix Article online since February 10th 2010, 13:25 Although the effects of alcohol on a fetus have been known for years, many Canadians still believe that it?s safe to drink during pregnancy. But studies have shown that drinking even small amounts of alcohol at any time during pregnancy can damage the developing brain of an unborn baby. Some common myths are that certain alcoholic drinks are less harmful than others, or that drinking after the first trimester is safe. The fact is, any kind of alcohol ? beer, wine, coolers, hard liquor or even hard ciders ? can cause lifelong damage to a baby at any stage during pregnancy. If you drink during your pregnancy, you risk giving birth to a baby with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). What is FASD? Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a general term that describes the range of disabilities that may affect a child if his or her mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. It?s recognized in Canada as one of the leading causes of preventable birth defects and brain damage in children. The only way someone can get FASD is if his or her mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, it?s quickly absorbed into the baby?s bloodstream in concentrations that are as high as those in the mother. This can lead to serious damage to the baby?s developing brain and central nervous system. Damage can occur at all stages of pregnancy. FASD can affect a baby?s physical, social and mental abilities. This includes problems with memory and learning, behaviour, problem solving, and difficulty with relationships. Physical effects may also include birth defects, low birth weight, small stature and facial deformities. And because there?s no cure for FASD, these effects can last a lifetime. People with FASD often need support and services such as special education, tutors and even lifelong care. If you?re trying to get pregnant or are already pregnant, please don?t drink alcohol. It?s the best choice you can make for your growing baby. For more information on FASD, talk to your doctor or call the Eastern Ontario Health Unit at 613-933-1375 or 1 800 267-7120 and ask for the Health Line. You can also visit our website at www.eohu.ca. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/b07554ff/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 12:32:56 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 12:34:09 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Alcohol offences up 460% in Iqaluit last year: RCMP Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301123247.044421a8@ncf.ca> "...wondered if council should also consider implementing some kind of alcohol education committee, which already exists in some Nunavut communities..." http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/02/25/iqa-rcmp-liquor.html cbcnews Canada Alcohol offences up 460% in Iqaluit last year: RCMP Last Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2010 | 9:30 AM CT CBC News [Photo] About 90 per cent of calls to Iqaluit RCMP last year were alcohol-related, city councillors were told this week. (CBC) Iqaluit city councillors were shocked this week by the RCMP's statistics for 2009, which show the number of liquor-related offences in Nunavut's capital city went up by 460 per cent over the year before. Iqaluit RCMP say they dealt with 2,649 liquor offences last year, compared to 576 in 2008. "My goodness, there were a lot of parties in 2009," Coun. Mary Wilman said at Tuesday's council meeting. "That is alarming. When I see a figure like that, I don't see anything good about it." The number of overall calls to police also increased in 2009, as did the number of people held in RCMP custody. When councillors asked what caused the dramatic increase in numbers last year, Sgt. Manon Painchaud said nearly all the calls to police had to do with alcohol. "I would say approximately 90 per cent of our calls for service are liquor-related, which mean either the complainant or the person that's been arrested or charged had consumed liquor," Painchaud said. Stretched resources As well, Painchaud said Iqaluit's growing population, along with stretched policing resources, played a role in the rising numbers. Coun. Simon Nattaq said the city's public safety committee wants to work with the RCMP to bring down those figures. Speaking in Inuktitut, Nattaq said he wondered if council should also consider implementing some kind of alcohol education committee, which already exists in some Nunavut communities. Coun. Natsiq Kango noted that people can order as much alcohol as they want, with few limitations, under the current permit system. Coun. Jimmy Kilabuk pointed out that bootlegging is a major problem in Iqaluit, and Painchaud said RCMP are cracking down on bootleggers. "Bootlegging and bootleggers in the community are there. We're aware they're there, and we're working on it, and we're conducting enforcement on these people," she said. "The federal enforcement section within the RCMP and the City of Iqaluit are working very hard, and they are targetting these people, and they have done several seizures since the new year." Story comments (21) Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/02/25/iqa-rcmp-liquor.html#ixzz0gwkP4cBs -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/6f6da4a9/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 12:33:12 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 12:34:22 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] =?iso-8859-1?q?Nunavik_counsellors=3A_=93We?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_need_to_act_like_adults=94?= Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301123304.04442438@ncf.ca> "...children who end up with fetal alcohol syndrome become prone to drinking and using drugs and developing mental illnesses..." http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/89756_nunavik_counsellors_we_need_to_act_like_adults/ Nunatsiaqonline NEWS: Nunavik February 25, 2010 - 9:53 am Nunavik counsellors: ?We need to act like adults? Workers say substance abuse killing the region's future JANE GEORGE [Photo] Timothy Sangoya and Lizzie Ningiuruvik, who work for Nunavik's Nunalituqait Ikajuqatigiitut wellness group, told KRG delegates meeting in Kuujjuaq this week that it's time to take action to curb drug and alcohol use in Nunavik. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE) KUUJJUAQ ? Nunavimmiut must protect and care for their children and ?start acting like adults,? two wellness counsellors said at the Kativik Regional Government council meeting this week in Kuujjuaq. ?We need to act like adults and not do whatever we want,? Lizzie Ningiuruvik told the group of regional leaders on Feb. 22. ?We can?t turn a blind eye. We need to enforce a healthier lifestyle.? Ningiurvik and Timothy Sangoya, who work for Nunavik?s Nunalituqait Ikajuqatigiitut wellness group, said Nunavimmiut can curb their drug and alcohol use. To do this, they need to talk to each other more, learn more about the dangers of substance abuse and then take action. If they don?t, Nunavik?s future will be at risk: ?these alcohol and drugs are killing the Inuit way of life,? Sangoya said. If inuutuinnait adults don?t change their ways, Ningiuruvik questioned who will be left to raise Nunavik?s 4,885 children under 20 or run the future Nunavik Regional Government. ?If we are going to have a good government, we have to have people who are not affected by alcohol and drugs,? she said. Many Nunavik children receive little parental guidance. Some are scared to go home, while others end up living in foster care or with their grandparents. But, at the same, Nunavik elders don?t even dare tell the younger generations about what?s right or wrong. ?Today they?re not respected no one listens to them,? Sangoya said. Children in Nunavik are also starting to use substances at a younger age, the two counsellors said. ?Use by adults has become so normalized that we have forgotten to say it?s dangerous,? they said in a two-hour presentation also broadcast live to Nunavimmiut on the region?s Inuttitut-language radio network, Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. Unfortunately listeners couldn?t see the gruesome serious of slides which Ningiuruvik and Sangoya served up to underline the visible damages from drugs. They showed images of festering wounds, rotting teeth, open sores from compulsive skin picking and scans of brains ?fried? from drugs like crystal meth. They also cited various research studies and statistics about the damage drugs and alcohol can cause. Nunavik infants are being damaged by their mother?s use of alcohol during pregnancy. These children who end up with fetal alcohol syndrome become prone to drinking and using drugs and developing mental illnesses, they said. Ningiuruvik and Sangoya also pointed to the rising rates of criminal activity in Nunavik, which includes increases in the numbers of assaults, drug offenses and gun calls. Nearly all these offenses are linked to drugs and alcohol, they said. During a 14 community field trip last spring, they learned how inmates in southern jails regularly exchange country food for drugs and heard how the traditional greeting at airports has degenerated into questions about ?did you bring [drugs and alcohol] ? or ?do you know someone who has [drugs and alcohol].? They also heard Nunavimmiut want sober leaders who are less ?complacent about drugs and alcohol.? People said Nunavik needs sober role models, more accountability in leadership and less ?complacency? from their leaders about drugs and alcohol. Even as they spoke to the regional council, Ningiuruvik and Sangoya made a point to say they were not attacking leaders around the council table who may be users. Yet they were clearly asking for some action. A ?just say no? to get youth off drugs and alcohol flopped, they said, while the messages from elders to stop isn?t producing results, despite more than 30 years of warnings. During the field trip people came up with many common-sense suggestions about how individuals can tell users to stop and ?tell myself to stop.? The team, which also includes Siasi Irqumia, Elashuk Pauyungie, Iola Metuq and Caroline Alexander, plans to travel again around Nunavik and speak at a conference with Nunavik?s youth association later this year. (6) Comments: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/b73d64b9/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 13:33:37 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 13:34:06 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Anti-Drinking Ads Can Increase Alcohol Use (2 articles) Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301133323.04442aa0@ncf.ca> http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/288109 Digital Journal Health Ads for anti-drinking increases alcohol use according to study By KJ Mullins. Feb 25, 2010 by KJ Mullins Public service campaigns that use guilt and shame are not effective when it comes to alcohol abuse according to a study from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. The study found that ads that try to use shame or guilt as a tactic to discourage alcohol abuse has the opposite effect. The ads trigger a coping mechanism causing viewers to distance themselves from the consequences that the ads portray. Alcohol abuse is a growing problem. Public health has long worked on ad campaigns to warn the public on the effects of alcohol abuse. Often the campaigns feature blackouts or car accidents. For viewers who have already experienced those things the ads appear to be too much to process and have a "that only happens to other people" effect. Adam Duhachek, a marketing professor and co-author of the study, suggests that future ads provide ways to deal with the problems instead of using shame and guilt. "If you're going to communicate a frightening scenario, temper it with the idea that it's avoidable," he said in a Medical News Today article. "It's best to use the carrot along with the stick." http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180300.php Medical News Today Alcohol/Addiction/Illegal Drugs Anti-Drinking Ads Can Increase Alcohol Use Article Date: 25 Feb 2010 - 2:00 PST Public service advertising campaigns that use guilt or shame to warn against alcohol abuse can actually have the reverse effect, spurring increased drinking among target audiences, according to new research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Instead of the intended outcome, researchers in this first-of-its-kind study showed that the ads triggered an innate coping mechanism that enables viewers to distance themselves from the serious consequences of reckless drinking. Anti- or "responsible" drinking campaigns have long been a mainstay of health departments, nonprofit organizations and even beverage companies. Yet alcohol abuse remains a persistent and growing problem linked to the deaths of approximately 79,000 people in the United States each year. "The public health and marketing communities expend considerable effort and capital on these campaigns but have long suspected they were less effective than hoped," said Adam Duhachek, a marketing professor and co-author of the study. "But the situation is worse than wasted money or effort. These ads ultimately may do more harm than good because they have the potential to spur more of the behavior they're trying to prevent." Duhachek's research specifically explores anti-drinking ads that link to the many possible adverse results of alcohol abuse, such as blackouts and car accidents, while eliciting feelings of shame and guilt. Findings show such messages are too difficult to process among viewers already experiencing these emotions -- for example, those who already have alcohol-related transgressions. To cope, they adopt a defensive mindset that allows them to underestimate their susceptibility to the consequences highlighted in the ads; that is, that the consequences happen only to "other people." The result is they engage in greater amounts of irresponsible drinking, according to respondents. "Advertisements are capable of bringing forth feelings so unpleasant that we're compelled to eliminate them by whatever means possible," said Duhachek. "This motivation is sufficiently strong to convince us we're immune to certain risks." The findings are particularly relevant for U.S. universities, where alcohol abuse threatens the well-being of an entire generation, he said. Each year, drinking among college students contributes to an estimated 1,700 student deaths, 600,000 injuries, 700,000 assaults, 90,000 sexual assaults and 474,000 cases of unprotected sex. The unintended negative impact of employing shame and guilt in these ads has implications for a wider range of health related messaging, from smoking cessation to preventing sexually transmitted diseases. According to Duhachek, shame- and guilt-inducing campaigns that seek to curb these behaviors can have the same unintentional backfire effects. Duhachek encourages marketers looking to influence drinking and other behaviors to convey dire consequences along with messages of empowerment. For instance, providing strategies to control one's drinking or recalling instances where one resisted the temptation to engage in risky drinking behavior may provide a pathway to reducing these undesirable behaviors more effectively. "If you're going to communicate a frightening scenario, temper it with the idea that it's avoidable," he said. "It's best to use the carrot along with the stick." Duhachek developed the study with Nidhi Agrawal at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. They interviewed more than 1,200 undergraduate students after showing them shame- and guilt-inducing advertisements, which they specifically created for the research. To ensure no biases on the part of respondents, the team opted not to rely on existing campaigns. The resulting paper, "Emotional Compatibility and the Effectiveness of Anti-Drinking Messages: A Defensive Processing Perspective on Shame and Guilt" is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research. Source Indiana University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/9f0ec95b/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 13:43:30 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 13:46:27 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] What Is Real Autism?... FAS may be a cause Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301134322.04473500@ncf.ca> "...if a person has, for example, fetal alcohol syndrome with "autism-like" symptoms, does that person have autism caused by FAS, or FAS with autism-like symptoms, or a dual diagnosis?..." http://autism.about.com/od/causesofautism/f/realautism.htm About.com:Autism What Is Real Autism? By Lisa Jo Rudy, About.com Guide Updated January 08, 2010 About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board Question: What Is Real Autism? There's plenty of controversy over the question, "What is real autism?" If a child once had symptoms, but now no longer has symptoms, was it "real" autism to begin with? What if the symptoms were caused by a known issue, or started after a child turned three? Here are answers from a top expert, Dr. Susan Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Answer: While the definition of "real" autism may seem elusive, in fact it's much simpler than you might imagine. If a child under the age of three develops symptoms which meet the criteria for an autism spectrum disorder, then that child is appropriately diagnosable on the autism spectrum. Period. To clarify this point, I asked Dr. Susan Levy, a top autism expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: If a person has "autism-like" symptoms, does he or she have an autism spectrum disorder? That is, if a person has, for example, fetal alcohol syndrome with "autism-like" symptoms, does that person have autism caused by FAS, or FAS with autism-like symptoms, or a dual diagnosis? Here is how Dr. Levy answered the question: If they meet the criteria, they have autism. Those medical issues are the underlying cause. Autism is the end-product of different biological entities. FAS [fetal alcohol syndrome] may be a cause of autism. The medical issue may cause the problem. There could also be confounding issues that make diagnosis difficult. [It's also critical that] onset must be before age 3. if there are cognitive impairments after age 3, it's not autism - it's brain injury with autism-like symptoms. Dr. Levy says, while about 80% of autism is idiopathic (of unknown cause), there are at present many known causes of autism including FAS, rubella, Fragile X Syndrome, and more. In addition, according to a a report published in Pediatrics in 2009 entitled "Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007," as many as 40% of children who received an autism spectrum disorder at some point in their lives are no longer diagnosable on the autism spectrum. Sources: Interview with Dr. Susan E. Levy, MD, Director, Regional Autism Center, Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, December 2009. Rice, Catherine. "Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders." Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, United States, 2006. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/82d06e2e/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 14:08:22 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 14:10:08 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] 'I will never, ever accept their apologies' (2 articles) Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301140815.04472d50@ncf.ca> "...It wasn't easy for Hamilton, 26, of Lakeville. He was born with fetal alcohol syndrome..." http://www.startribune.com/local/south/81010427.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUvDE7aL_V_BD77:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUs Star-Tribune.com Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota 'I will never, ever accept their apologies' By JOY POWELL, Star Tribune Last update: January 10, 2010 - 12:14 AM [Photo] Justin Hamilton Justin Hamilton faced his assailant in court, who got 10 years in prison for leading the brutal attack. Justin Hamilton went to court in Hastings on Friday to watch one of the men who kidnapped, beat and tortured him 15 months ago receive an exceptionally long prison sentence. It wasn't easy for Hamilton, 26, of Lakeville. He was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and is developmentally delayed. And because he was kidnapped by a group of acquaintances on two consecutive nights in October 2008, he's found it scary to even leave the house where he lives with his brother and sister-in-law. But Friday, with armed deputies standing nearby, Hamilton faced his assailant -- Jonathon Diepold, 22, of Northfield -- and then got up and quietly told the judge how the trauma had affected him. He told of how he was "set back" in the progress he had worked to achieve over the years. Diepold was the last of five suspects sentenced for the brutal attacks, which stirred public outrage and empathy. Diepold will serve 10 years, double the recommended sentence under state guidelines. The attacks came after a girl Hamilton had just met, Natasha Dahn, then 16, told her male friends that Hamilton had hit her. It was a lie, she later admitted. During the five hours Hamilton was held against his will in a remote part of Dakota County on the first night, Oct. 10-11, 2008, he was beaten, kicked, hit with objects and burned. The next night, while in pain with broken ribs and burns, he was again assaulted for hours. In court Friday, Diepold read aloud letters of apology to Justin Hamilton and his family. "I'm really sorry I snapped," he said, his hands cuffed. "I should have never listened to others. I realize now that you're not the bad guy I was told about. ... I pray every day that life will work out for both of us." Hamilton listened, his mother at his side. "I will never, ever accept their apologies," he told reporters afterward. "These two men wanted to light me on fire alive and leave me for dead," referring to Diepold and Jonathan M. Maniglia, ringleaders in the attack. Once happy-go-lucky and trusting, he said he no longer sleeps well or trusts people. Before the attack, Hamilton said, he had planned to attend Dakota County Technical College to become a mechanic. But the nearly $20,000 he had saved for that went to lawyers. Diepold was sentenced on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of false imprisonment and one count each of aggravated robbery, third-degree assault and gross misdemeanor theft. The savagery of the attacks led prosecutor Lawrence Clark to ask the judge to double the prison time. "The defendant seems to carry some twisted notion of chivalry," Clark said, referring to the girl's lie. But these really were crimes that "shocked the senses," he said. Noting the particular cruelty of the kidnappings and beatings, Judge Tim Wermager granted Clark's request. Diepold will serve two-thirds of the 10-year sentence in prison and could spend the rest of it on supervised release. A violation of his release conditions could send him back to prison to serve the entire sentence. "Mr. Hamilton has physical scars. They may not go away," Wermager told Diepold, as he hung his head and his mother wept nearby. "But the most tragic part here is the mental and emotional harm that may never be overcome." After the sentencing, Justin Hamilton said he was satisfied with the punishment. So was Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. "If there ever was a case in Minnesota's history that warranted an upward departure from sentencing guidelines, this is it," he said. Last October, about a year after the attacks, Wermager convicted Diepold after a bench trial. The judge noted that there were multiple forms of assault; that an especially vulnerable victim suffered particular cruelty, and that emotional harm was inflicted. On Friday, Wermager noted that Diepold tended to minimize his role in the beatings. In June, Maniglia, 21, of Northfield, was found guilty of kidnapping, assault and theft and sentenced to eight years in prison. Glen Ries, 34, of Northfield; Timothy Ketterling, 23, of Prior Lake, and Dahn pleaded guilty to lesser charges and were sentenced. Joy Powell ? 952-882-9017 http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/minnesota/jonathan-diepold-sentenced--justin-hamilton-beating-jan-8-2010 myfox.com News - Minnesota 5th Sentenced in Disabled Man's Beating Diepold sentenced for beating of Justin Hamilton Published : Friday, 08 Jan 2010, 3:56 PM CST HASTINGS, Minn. - A Northfield, Minn. man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for the kidnapping and severe beating of a disabled man from Lakeville. Jonathan Diepold, 22, is the fifth and final person to be sentenced for their role in the beating of 24-year-old Justin Hamilton. His punishment is an upward departure of the state sentencing guidelines. ?We are pleased to have brought all persons involved in the violent kidnapping and assault of this vulnerable victim to justice," Dakota County Attornye James BAckstrom said. "The significant prison term Jonathan Diepold received today was clearly warranted given his leading role in these attacks and the particular cruelty shown to this vulnerable victim.? Diepold was found guilty on Oct. 12, 2009 of two counts of kidnapping, one count of aggravated robbery, one count of third-degree assault, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of theft. The other convictions John Maxwell Maniglia , 20, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, assault and theft. He was sentenced to 96 months in prison ast June. Glen Richard Ries, 34, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 36 months in prison in Septmeber. Timothy John Ketterling, 22, pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to four days in jail and 80 hours of community service last July. Natasha Dahn , 17, pleaded guilty in juvenile court and was sentenced to 96 months. "We are pleased to have now convicted all the persons involved in this violent attack," Backstrom said. The attack According to the criminal complaint, Dahn befriended Hamilton, who suffered with fetal alcohol syndrome. On October 12 and 13 of 2008, Hamilton was lured to a deserted part of Waterford Township, where he was attacked for hours. Hamilton told police he was bound to a tree, burned with cigarettes, kicked and hit with a baton by people he thought were his friends. Prosecutors said Dahn, Maniglia's 16-year-old girlfriend at the time, provoked the beating by lying to Maniglia and others, claiming Hamilton had hit her. Maniglia and others also stole items from Hamilton. After the second beating, a passerby picked up Hamilton on a dark rural road and took him to the Northfield police station. He had severe bruises, cuts, burns and two broken ribs. Hamilton also lost sight in one eye. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/a5109a5c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 14:16:33 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 14:22:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Party warning for pregnant women: Alcohol, cigarettes hurting the unborn Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301141407.04645928@ncf.ca> http://www.khou.com/home/Party-warning-Alcohol-cigarettes-hurting-the-unborn-80933182.html khou.com Houston, Texas Party warning for pregnant women: Alcohol, cigarettes hurting the unborn by Dave Fehling / 11 News Posted on January 7, 2010 at 8:55 PM Updated Friday, Jan 8 at 12:00 AM ****** [Video Don't Drink for Two] HOUSTON?Women who smoke or drink while pregnant might want to consider what Houston mother Yolanda Ross can tell them about her daughter. "When I saw her, I knew something was wrong," said Ross about getting her first look at her newborn. As her baby daughter grew, she showed signs of impaired mental development, commonly called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Her doctors said it very likely could be linked to Ross?s drinking and possibly her drug use. "I was in denial because I didn?t drink every day," Ross said of how she rationalized her binge drinking. Ross and another Houston mother, Mercedes Alejandro, are both featured in a video shot in Houston that?s now being distributed across Texas. Its most unforgettable moment comes from Alejandro?s son, now a young adult. "I would say please don?t drink when you?re pregnant," said Nicolas Alejandro in the video, adding in a stuttering voice: "The... the... the... effects are irreversible." He also suffered diminished mental development linked to alcohol. In the video, his mother explains she didn?t know she was pregnant when she was drinking socially on the weekends. "I would have stopped drinking right away," she said. The two mothers told 11 News why they volunteered to do the video. "For me it was important because women don?t know, there?s so much shame associated with this," said Mercedes Alejandro. Asked if the video will help, Ross said, "Lord yes!" The Texas Health Department produced the "Don?t Drink for Two" video to raise awareness?especially among women on public assistance. The state is giving DVD copies to women who visit WIC offices (Women, Infants and Children program). Birth defects from drinking and from smoking while pregnant are among the most preventable, yet they are among the most devastating and costly. In an ongoing State of Texas study of Houston women of child-bearing age, 13 percent were found to be at risk of having babies with defects linked to drinking and smoking. Local and state governments care about this, and not just as a health issue, but as a cost issue. Women with complicated pregnancies and children with birth defects cost public health and later public schools millions in extra expenses. But it?s one thing to tell to women to stop, quite another for some to do it. "Now once you become a nicotine addict or an alcoholic. It?s a whole different story," said Mahmoud Ahmed, a researcher with the Department of Obstetrics at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He says addicted smokers are particularly hard cases. By one estimate cited by the Texas Department of Health Services, only 20 percent of them manage to quit during their pregnancies. "That?s when medications are needed, said Ahmed. But aren?t pregnant women advised not to take many prescription drugs? "Exactly, but then it?s benefits versus risk," said Ahmed. Drugs like Zyban that help people stop smoking are not prescribed to pregnant women because it?s not known if they might harm the fetus. Another researcher at UTMB, Tatiana Nanovskyaya, is trying to find out if they do. "You can predict what adverse effect it can cause, " said Nanovskyaya. How? At a laboratory located down the hall from the delivery room at UTMB?s John Sealy Hospital, researchers receive a mother?s placenta just moments after birth. The researchers then attach tubes to the placenta, mimicking the flow of blood, and inject the drugs to see how much passes through the placenta, which provides food and oxygen to the fetus. Depending on what they find, doctors might eventually start prescribing the stop-smoking drugs to pregnant women. But whether it?s smoking or drinking or both, the Houston mothers said far more needs to be done in their communities to publicize the danger. Yolanda Ross said she wished she had known more back when she was pregnant because she said the feelings of guilt can be overwhelming. "I cried, I cried, I cried because I knew that I did this to my baby," said Ross. Her daughter is in school now but needs lots of special therapy. So does Nicolas Alejandro. Their mothers cannot change the past, but they want others to learn from it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/dee7730a/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 14:29:43 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 14:34:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Mandatory alcohol label plans: U.K. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301142934.0444e478@ncf.ca> "...31% have a pregnancy warning..." http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/85954?PagingData=Po_0~Ps_10~Psd_Asc Morning Advertiser Officially the pub trade's favourite England Mandatory alcohol label plans By Lesley Foottit 15/02/2010 07:35 [Photo of label] Industry's voluntary approach is working, says BBPA The Government is set to announce plans for mandatory health label warnings on all cans and bottles of beer, wine and spirits. It is understood, the labels will include details of how many units a bottle contains, a general health warning and a reminder to drink responsibly. They would also list the safe daily consumption limits and the Drinkaware website address. The consultation will outline three options ? that drinks firms voluntarily comply and print the warnings, that they be forced to do so by the Portman Group, the industry?s regulator or that they will be forced to do so by law. However, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said that there was no need for making the scheme mandatry. It said more than nine out of 10 beer cans and bottles in the UK now carry information on the number of alcoholic units. A Government study from last year found: ? 91% of beer cans and bottles have unit information ? 75% have a responsibility message ? 82% have the Drinkaware logo ? 40% have the responsible drinking guidelines ? 31% have a pregnancy warning ?The positive and continuing progress made, not only shows the merits of the voluntary approach, but demonstrates why Government should continue to back the voluntary approach as the best way of achieving their objective of better information for consumers,? said chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association Brigid Simmonds. Heineken UK introduced responsible drinking information on all its bottles and cans in 2003. Head of external communications Nigel Pollard said: ?The information today includes a responsible drinking message; the number of alcohol units contained within the pack; recommended daily guidelines for consumption; a foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) pictogram and details of the drinkaware website.? The Conservatives recently proposed a move away from the unit system. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: ?In order that people are able to make the right choices we need to provide them with simple and correct information. ?That is why, for example, we are going to move away from the confusing system of alcohol units, and also provide people with relevant, consistent information such as the centilitres of alcohol in alcohol products, and the calories content in each alcoholic drink.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/06d59417/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 14:44:05 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 14:46:06 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Tracy's legacy: More shelter for the homeless: Vancouver Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301144357.04472c08@ncf.ca> "... Anna and Bert Draayers, Surrey foster parents who were well known in the 1990s for looking after dozens of children, some of them with challenges such as fetal alcohol syndrome..." . http://www.kelowna.com/2010/01/09/tracys-legacy-more-shelter-for-the-homeless-she-died-horribly-on-the-street-the-coroner-called-for-increased-help-for-those-like-her-that-is-happening/ Kelowna.com Kelowna, British Columbia Lifestyle Tracy's legacy: More shelter for the homeless; She died horribly on the street. The coroner called for increased help for those like her. That is happening Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | 7:20 am Canwest News Service Coralee Bergman's mother used to dress her in frilly pink frocks with matching bonnets, taking pictures of the young girl who resembled a blue-eyed, blond-haired china doll in knee-highs and black patent-leather shoes. "I remember she used to put me in dresses and do my hair. She was a very showy mom," Coralee, now 28, recalls. The mother she is referring to is Dawn Amanda Bergman, a homeless woman who died a brutal death one year ago when a candle ignited her shopping cart in Vancouver's West End. She is better known to the public by her street moniker, Tracy, which is her brother's first name. Dawn was a young mother, and by most accounts a good one, until she and her husband started using drugs in the 1980s. Their four children were taken by social services. Dawn struggled to stay clean but lapsed. She would go on to have six more children, all of them eventually seized. Dawn would spend some time in jail for a violent crime, and afterward her home would be a shopping cart near Davie and Hornby. To most people, she was just one of the hundreds of nameless, faceless people shivering in the cold on Vancouver streets until her death on Dec. 19, 2008 horrified the city. This week, as Vancouver city hall unveiled its 2010 Winter Response Plan, Mayor Gregor Robertson said it was influenced by the recommendations in the coroner's report into Dawn's death. "We are responding to the coroner's report on the death of a homeless woman named Tracy in the West End that called for more shelters that accept carts and pets, that are in neighbourhoods where there are homeless populations with needs," the mayor said. Both the city and the province have been tackling Vancouver's massive homelessness problem, but still hundreds will be sleeping outside this winter. Much was accomplished in 2009, and there are plans to continue that work in 2010, but more needs to be done to reach the mayor's goal of eliminating homelessness by 2015. While Coralee Bergman bluntly acknowledges her mother was not always a sympathetic character, she remains grief-stricken by her death. The Surrey woman finds some comfort in knowing her mother's story has impacted many people. "But it really sucks that someone has to die to make change," said Coralee who, along with her uncle Tracy Tucker, agreed to speak publicly for the first time about Dawn's life. Born Dawn Tucker in 1962, she was five years old when her parents, devastated by the death of her infant sister in a car crash, adopted a baby boy they named Tracy. Their father was a truck driver and mechanic, and the family moved around a lot, living in communities in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. "She was outgoing," Tracy Tucker recalled. "She loved to paint. She was very artistic. "She was kind of a geeky kid up to Grade 7 or 8." Then she grew into a striking teenager who rebelled against her parents' rules and ran away from home in the 1970s. First child at 18 Dawn had her first baby, Christopher, when she was 18 years old in Whitehorse, where her family then lived. Soon after she married Merril Bergman, a bricklayer, and they relocated with one-year-old Christopher to Delta, where Coralee was born in 1981. Tracy moved in with the young family when he was 14, after refusing to move to a Christian commune with his parents. However, the relatively happy home in Delta started to deteriorate before Dawn's next two babies, Carrea and Cayley, were born. "The first few Christmases were awesome. I remember having so many toys and presents. Then one year it all changed," Coralee recalled. "And it just got worse through the years." Her mother began working as an exotic dancer. Both parents started using drugs. There was abuse in the home. When the four children were seized by social services they ranged in age from an infant to 10 years. They were taken in by Anna and Bert Draayers, Surrey foster parents who were well known in the 1990s for looking after dozens of children, some of them with challenges such as fetal alcohol syndrome. Their mother visited during the first year, but the four children would live with the Draayers for the next eight years. Dawn would get clean and relapse in the 1990s, and during that decade she would have six more children. There are family photos of Dawn with some of these babies, but they were all seized by social services. Tucker believes that was a grief his sister could never overcome, and part of the reason her addiction was so powerful. "She couldn't get over that fact, losing all the kids. That kept her in her addiction longer and longer," he said. In 1999, Dawn participated in a brutal Abbotsford home invasion which left an 84-year-old woman with serious injuries. Addicted to heroin at the time, she testified she was made a scapegoat by the others involved with the crime, but the judge rejected her testimony. While in prison, Dawn's artistic flair emerged, as she sewed clothing and sold it to staff and other prisoners. Tucker phoned his sister in jail, and Coralee visited her in 2001. Dawn had been friendly, she recalled, asking for canteen money and giving her daughter a beaded belt with spiders on it. "She looked good. She was very much like a small child, though. I could tell she was stuck in the age she started using. She talked like a little girl," Coralee recalled. Her mother phoned again from jail in 2004. "She said, 'Hi. I miss you. I love you. I apologize for not being there.' She said, 'I wish I could see you.'" It was the last time Coralee heard her mother's voice. [] [] A home of blankets After being released from prison in 2005, Tucker said, his sister began living in an Abbotsford park, where he heard she often lectured younger people to get off drugs. She eventually drifted to Vancouver. Tucker last saw his sister in the fall of 2008, after bumping into her on Granville Street. He had seen little of her over the previous 20 years, as he had spent much of that time in and out of jail. Dawn had been in good spirits, he recalled. He was using drugs then, too, and living in the Brandeez hotel. Dawn asked if she could stay with him, but there was a $10 guest fee and neither had the cash. Dawn showed her brother her carefully constructed home, made of blankets and tarps draped over a large cart. "She was proud of the shelter. She had little lights in it," he recalled. "She took pride in how she was living out there, even though she didn't want to be living out there." The coroner's report, which noted Dawn had an "extensive history" of substance abuse and mental health issues, said she refused to go to a shelter on the freezing cold evening of Dec. 19, 2008 because none would allow her to bring her trolley full of possessions. Coroner Kate Corcoran concluded candles Dawn was using to keep warm likely caused her blankets to smoulder while she slept, emitting carbon dioxide which impaired her ability to wake up and escape the fire. Corcoran made two recommendations: that the city establish shelters in the winter in which homeless people can bring their carts, and that the locations of those facilities be made available to the non-profit agencies managing them "well in advance of opening." The city followed the first recommendation, as two new HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team) shelters have recently been opened, in addition to the three HEAT shelters that began operating at the time of Dawn's death. However, governments have fallen down on the report's second recommendation, as the province only committed to the $1.2 million funding in mid-December. That meant non-profits had to scramble to get the newest shelters open in Mount Pleasant and under the Granville Street Bridge by Dec. 22 and Jan. 6 respectively ? after winter had already set in. And city hall is still looking for locations for two more 40-bed HEAT shelters, scheduled to be open in the coming weeks in Kitsilano and the West End. The HEAT shelters allow carts and pets. They also serve two meals a day, which the city believes has contributed to a reduction in aggressive panhandling. The March 2008 homeless count suggested there were then at least 1,600 people sleeping on Vancouver streets, and most experts agree that is a conservative estimate. In addition to the 420 beds in the five temporary HEAT facilities, the city runs 750 year-round shelter beds. But that still leaves more than 430 people sleeping outside each night ? and even if the two new HEAT shelters open, there would still be more than 350 people left in the cold. And, when the HEAT shelters close in April, it isn't clear where the 500 people sleeping in those beds will go. Because the recession has stunted provincial funding for new permanent housing, city hall's short-term plan is to try to replace shelter beds with more interim housing. An example of that is Dunsmuir House, which is leased from a private owner and was opened in November to offer 160 rooms. It is now mostly full of young people who were staying at two downtown HEAT shelters that were closed last summer following complaints from neighbours. The city is courting Victoria, churches, the private sector, philanthropists, and advocacy groups for financial help. "We're hoping that we can get funding from the province and anyone else who will step up to create housing options in the spring. We really need to transition people from shelters to housing," Robertson said. Mayor remains confident This crisis has been created, in part, by the federal government backing away from building social housing, and that needs to be reversed, he said. While "the homeless population is bigger than it's ever been," the mayor remains confident he can accomplish his goal to end the crisis by 2015. Some new permanent social housing did open in 2009, including the Lux (92 units), Kindred Place (87 units), and Woodwards (200 units). The Union Gospel Mission is building 91 new units, and 252 affordable housing units are to open in the Olympic Village. In April, 102 rooms are to open at the Bosman Hotel, where a federal government study will monitor the benefits of providing housing and support to the mentally ill. The city has also provided land on which the province was to construct 14 new social housing buildings. Six are under construction? four of them started just last month ? but won't all be complete until late 2011. The recession, city hall says, has meant delays of provincial funding for the remaining eight sites. Housing minister Rich Coleman is on holidays and his staff said no one else in the provincial government could speak about the B.C. Liberals' plans in 2010 to address homelessness. However, an official said in an e-mail that the province has in recent years bought 24 SROs (Single Room Occupancy) to protect 1,480 pre-existing rooms in Vancouver, and "given the current economic recession, . . . is doing everything within its power to fast-track [new] social housing projects." In the meantime, people on the streets will struggle to survive this winter. lculbert@vancouversun.co -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/ea9d30d3/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 14:59:10 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 15:04:07 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Newly Published Adoption Book from Tapestry Books, Help =?iso-8859-1?q?I=92ve?= Been Adopted Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301145901.0445b690@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 15:03:33 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 15:04:15 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Bundle of Joy: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301150324.04472140@ncf.ca> http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/health/news-article.aspx?storyid=152128&catid=10 First Coast News Jacksonville, Florida Health News Bundle of Joy: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Joy Purdy Ann Butler [] Created: 2/17/2010 10:05:35 AM [] Updated: 2/18/2010 4:13:45 AM JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- What if I've been drinking, not knowing I'm pregnant? I've heard it's okay to drink a glass of wine every now and then toward the end of my pregnancy -- the baby's already developed enough, right? Experts say both questions have the same answer. Local high-risk pregnancy specialist Dr. Ramon Castillo said both instances are just as dangerous for the unborn baby, and the mom-to-be should be seen by a specialist. Castillo works at the Baptist Medical Center office of Regional Obstetrics Consultants in downtown Jacksonville. Local mother Jeana Davis and her 4-year-old adopted daughter Alivia. Alivia suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, and has undergone countless surgeries in her short life while facing mental and emotional challenges. For more information on other problems reated to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, see the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome website. Check out Joy's "Bundle of Joy" blog on MomsLikeMe.com where you have the chance to ask questions which she will pass on to Dr. Castillo for answers. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/213d5d96/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 15:09:04 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 15:10:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] St. Catharines, Ont., inquest jury deliberating case of boy smothered in foster care Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301150857.04471c20@ncf.ca> "...asked the jury to recommend more information be publicized about the dangers of consuming alcohol while pregnant..." St. Catharines, Ont., inquest jury deliberating case of boy smothered in foster care The Canadian Press. Toronto: Feb 24, 2010. ST. CATHARINES, Ont. _ The teen murderer at the centre of a coroner's inquest into the death of Matthew Reid doesn't feel sorry for herself, but for the boy she killed, her former foster mother said Wednesday. The girl wrote a letter to Matthew to that effect and to the three-year-old's mother, Violet McArthur told a jury. ``She remembers clearly what she did and is upset with herself. It's a burden she lives with daily and for the rest of her life.'' McArthur, who cared for the girl for two years, asked the jury to recommend more information be publicized about the dangers of consuming alcohol while pregnant. Her recommendation was one of dozens made Wednesday before jurors began deliberations in the four-week inquest. The jury has heard that the girl, whose name is protected by a publication ban, had fetal alcohol syndrome, which made her frustrated that she couldn't do things other children her age could. She yearned to have friends and wanted to help out and feel needed, McArthur said. The girl was 14 when she smothered Matthew with a pillow in his bedroom in December 2005. She had been placed in the Welland, Ont., foster home less than 24 hours earlier. Matthew and his foster home were under the care of Haldimand-Norfolk Children's Aid Society and the girl was under the care of Family and Children's Services Niagara. The girl is currently serving a seven-year sentence for second-degree murder. Jurors were given 23 proposed joint recommendations made by the nine parties with standing and the coroner's counsel Wednesday, along with several individual party proposals. Jurors are under no obligation to make any recommendation. It's expected they will continue to deliberate until Tuesday. The lawyer for Matthew's biological mother, said neither FACS Niagara or Haldimand-Norfolk CAS had a plan in place to ensure Matthew's safety. Ryan Steiner told the jurors there was evidence the girl, who lashed out in cycles, would act out in some way. At the time of the death, she had just got out of detention, was not permitted to see friends or go to school and was not allowed to go back to McArthur's home. (St. Catharines Standard) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/dcc94d1c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 15:16:29 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 15:22:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Bold action needed; Child welfare: ... First Nations: New Brunswick Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301151621.044712a0@ncf.ca> "...First Nations children are ...are at an increased risk for a variety of health issues, including obesity and fetal alcohol syndrome...." Bold action needed; Child welfare: Report calls for wholesale changes in the way province deals with First Nations Jennifer Pritchett. Telegraph-Journal. Saint John, N.B.: Feb 25, 2010. pg. A.1 A report about child welfare on New Brunswick's native reserves calls on all levels of government to take "bold action" to narrow a startling gap that exists between services for aboriginal and non-aboriginal children. The province's ombudsman and youth advocate Bernard Richard released the 96- page report Wednesday inside the legislature. It recommends significant changes to the way child and family services are provided in First Nations communities, as well as sets out ways to address the underlying causes of the disadvantages that First Nations children face. "One cannot suppress a sense of dismay at how today, in this land of plenty, a group of people can be faced not only with challenges of economic development and child welfare but with serious problems of addictions, domestic violence and the devastating loss of language and tradition," states the report. The document contains 93 recommendations, roughly half of which are associated with the root causes of the disadvantages that First Nations children face. The other half calls for specific changes in the child welfare system. The report is the result of a six-month investigation into child welfare services on New Brunswick's reserves that was called as a result of the suicide death of a 13-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted. "We think these children pay an awful price and ultimately, they pay a price with their lives if we don't do the best that we can," said Richard. The ombudsman said the time to bring about change is now so that "no child is left behind. "It won't be easy. It won't be done overnight, but it needs to be done," he said. The report recommends that the number of child welfare agencies in First Nations communities be reduced from 11 to three agencies and that a single First Nations child and family services office be established by April 1, 2011. The centralized office would handle human resources, information management, financial, administrative and specialized child welfare services such as adoption and foster care. "The actual service delivery on the ground will be delivered in the communities," said Richard. New Brunswick is the only jurisdiction in Canada that doesn't provide child and family services for all First Nations communities through incorporated agencies that receive their funding directly from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. In this province, child welfare services are mostly provided through 11 child welfare agencies that receive their federal funding through the band offices. To assist in the launch of a new, centralized First Nations child and family services office, the ombudsman's report recommends that the New Brunswick government share its information management and case management systems, as well as support the roll-out and maintenance of payroll services and information systems to help standardize policies and practices. Social development minister Kelly Lamrock said the province will take an active role in moving the recommendations forward and has made a commitment to speak with federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Chuck Strahl to discuss the report's findings. However, he said the success of the report will depend on whether all levels of government work together with local bands. "Without any one of them, the whole thing falls apart," he said in an interview. The report points to eye-opening statistics about First Nations children, including the fact that they are six times more likely than other children to be taken from their homes and placed in foster care. "In fact, the system kind of rewards agencies for putting children into care because those expenses are covered 100 per cent by the current funding formula, " said Richard. First Nations children are four to five times more likely to be charged as young offenders and are at an increased risk for a variety of health issues, including obesity and fetal alcohol syndrome. School drop-out rates for First Nations youth are three times higher than for other youth. Richard describes these statistics as "staggering, alarming and upsetting." His report also calls attention to the fact that the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet languages are in danger of becoming extinct unless immediate measures are taken. Richard urges all levels of government to provide additional funding for early childhood development, youth sports and recreation, as well as cultural and linguistic preservation and promotion as way to "build resiliency and strong identities and to reinforce the strong attachment to community and family among First Nations children." In addition to public consultation in all 15 First Nations communities in New Brunswick, Richard and his team examined child welfare departments and First Nations child welfare agencies in other provinces, as well as consulted experts in Australia and New Zealand to learn about their aboriginal child welfare practices. He also formed an advisory committee to assist in the review process. It was co-chaired by former minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Andy Scott and Judge Graydon Nicholas, who had to step down to accept his appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. The committee also included an elder, educators, social workers and representatives from the federal and provincial governments. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/a6b2c4c6/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 1 15:19:16 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 1 15:22:12 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] B.C. judge faces tough decision on prison or community care for armed robber Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100301151908.0446e8c0@ncf.ca> "...He has fetal alcohol syndrome and endured a horrendous childhood, court heard...." B.C. judge faces tough decision on prison or community care for armed robber The Canadian Press. Toronto: Feb 25, 2010. KELOWNA, B.C. _ A British Columbia judge must decide whether to send a repeat armed robber to prison for threatening a young boy or let the man's community take care of him. ``Do I maintain what`s gone on and warehouse this man or try something new for his sake and the sake of the community?'' said Provincial Court Judge Gail Sinclair. He was referring to Willie Johnny, who threatened a 13-year-old boy with a knife and told him ``I`m a warrior and kill white people'' during a holdup in Lake Country, B.C., last September. Johnny, 36, let the boy go when he gave him $8.75. Although the boy wasn`t hurt, the crime had a severe psychological effect on him, said Crown lawyer Ed Pedersen. The boy was walking with two friends to a grocery store when Johnny confronted him. Once Johnny grabbed the cash, he wandered into the store and came out eating chicken, court heard. Police used a sniffer dog and tracked him to a nearby field, where he had passed out. The money was still in his pocket. Johnny was convicted of two robberies and an attempted robbery in the Williams Lake area between 1992 and 2004. He used a gun in two of the crimes and spent more than five years behind bars. He has fetal alcohol syndrome and endured a horrendous childhood, court heard. Johnny attended a residential school as a boy, the same one where his mother was sexually abused, court heard. Despite his criminal record, the Anahim band near Alexis Creek, B.C., has offered to give Johnny a home and support. Defence lawyer Andrew Vandersluys said his client has committed to attending an aboriginal residential treatment facility and deal with his issues. The Crown asked for four or five years in prison, but Vandersluys wants house arrest. The judge delayed his decision until March 2. (Kelowna Daily Courier) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100301/aed66f12/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 5 19:43:34 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 13:40:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Drinking During Pregnancy can Cause Irreversible Harm to Unborn Child: Scotland Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100305194326.049021a8@ncf.ca> http://thepregnancytips.com/article.asp?articleid=79213&Drinking-During-Pregnancy-can-Cause-Irreversible-Harm-to-Unborn-Child Pregnancy Tips Drinking During Pregnancy can Cause Irreversible Harm to Unborn Child March 2, 2010 |16:50 | Symptoms By : Team X Learning difficulties, physical disabilities and behavioural problems are all part of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders [FASD]. These lifelong conditions can drastically impact on the lives of the individual and those around them. BMA [British Medical Association] Scotland said that the reality is that these conditions are completely preventable by not drinking any alcohol during pregnancy. There is proven risk that heavy drinking by pregnant women can cause these disorders in their children. However, evidence is continuing to emerge on the effects of low or moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and until there is clarification the only message is that it is not safe to drink any alcohol during pregnancy or when planning a pregnancy. Dr Brian Keighley, Chairman of the BMA in Scotland said: ?We need to raise awareness of the emerging evidence on FASD among healthcare professionals so that children are diagnosed quickly and get the help they need. The lack of awareness and research in the UK on this subject, together with the complexity of the syndrome itself is leading to delays in diagnosis and referral. ?Healthcare professionals also need to get the message across to expectant mothers that consuming alcohol can cause irreversible harm to their unborn child. It?s about giving people the right information so that they can act responsibly - and save children from completely preventable life-long disabilities.? The BMA published a report on FASD in June 2007. Recommendations in the report include: ? There is an urgent need for further UK and international research on FASD. ? Research should be undertaken to examine the relationship between different levels of prenatal exposure and the range of conditions associated with FASD. ? The UK health departments should implement guidance and training programmes for healthcare professionals on the prevention, diagnosis and management of FASD. ? Women who are pregnant, or who are considering a pregnancy, should be advised not to consume any alcohol. ? Research should be undertaken to identify the most effective ways to educate the public about FASD and to alter drinking behaviour. This requires systematic studies that compare various universal strategies and their impacts across the different social groups. ? All healthcare professionals should provide clear and coherent advice for expectant mothers and anyone planning a pregnancy on the risks of maternal alcohol consumption. Members of the antenatal care team should provide continued advice and support to expectant mothers throughout pregnancy. ? Any woman who is identified as being at high-risk of prenatal alcohol exposure should be offered referral to specialist alcohol services for appropriate treatment. Any referral should be followed up and assessed at regular intervals. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100305/b3cbcee6/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 5 19:43:19 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 13:40:10 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Revealed: shocking legacy of drinking in pregnancy: Scotland (2 articles) Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100305194310.04902580@ncf.ca> http://thepregnancytips.com/article.asp?articleid=79087 Pregnancy Tips Revealed: shocking legacy of drinking in pregnancy March 1, 2010 |09:57 | Symptoms By : Team X Thousands more Scots children are suffering from less obvious symptoms such as learning difficulties caused by women who drink too much in the later stages of pregnancy, according to a new report. The study, which has been sent to both the UK and Scottish parliaments, warns too much emphasis has been placed on the cost of adults misusing alcohol, and the impact on their unborn children has been ignored. Dr Jonathan Sher, director of research, policy and programmes at Children in Scotland, which has more than 450 members including children?s charities and community groups, compiled the report. The study warns that Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the less obvious Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are entirely avoidable and completely incurable. The syndrome results in visible birth defects ? including a malformed face ? and damage to the brain and organs which can be fatal. The disorder is more difficult to diagnose and results in symptoms that include problems with concentration and learning. Dr Sher said: ?Foetal alcohol syndrome is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It is easier to diagnose because the damage can be seen. Thousands more children, teenagers and adults across Scotland have suffered serious harm to their brains that is invisible, but continues to have a negative impact on their learning, behaviour, wellbeing and life chances.? The report states: ?A conservative estimate is that there are 900 children in Scotland [under 18] who have FAS ? and many times more [ie thousands of] children and young people who were damaged in more subtle, but still serious, ways by foetal alcohol exposure. ?In comparison with the attention accorded to parental dependence upon alcohol ? and the misuse of alcohol by children and young people ? relatively little attention [and even less action] has been focused on the extent to which children?s lives and life chances have been compromised by exposure to alcohol while still in utero. This blindspot is counterproductive. Ignoring the problem of FAS and FASD has not reduced the life-long harm with which many children must live because of foetal alcohol exposure.? The study comes as children?s charities back Scottish Government plans for minimum pricing on alcohol. Children in Scotland believes the alcohol bill going through Holyrood needs to address a lack of awareness of what it believes is a growing problem. Forrester Cockburn, Emeritus Professor of Child Health at Glasgow University, told The Herald far more children in Scotland are suffering from the syndrome ?than were ever damaged by thalidomide?. ?The commonest preventable cause of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism and congenital heart disease is Foetal Alcohol Syndrome,? he said. ?You may see these conditions as a result of other problems but this is the one thing which is entirely preventable and young women should be made aware of that. There is a whole range of problems that don?t allow us to say there is a safe alcohol limit for expectant mothers. ?For the first three months I would not recommend any drinking, but one or two units a week after that might be okay. This is nine months of a ?woman?s life whereas the outlook for the child is for life.? He believes raising the price of alcohol and clearly labelling alcohol to explain the potential damage to unborn babies would help. Dr Harry Burns, Scotland?s Chief Medical Officer, said recently that prenatal exposure to alcohol ?is the leading cause of brain damage and developmental delay among children in industrialised countries?. http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/herald-the-glasgow-uk/mi_8039/is_20100301/revealed-shocking-legacy-drinking-pregnancy/ai_n50287241/ The Herald, Glasgow, U.K. Revealed: shocking legacy of drinking in pregnancy Herald, The; Glasgow (UK), Mar 1, 2010 | by Lucy Adams Chief Reporter email AT least 900 children in Scotland are suffering from a debilitating and potentially fatal syndrome caused by mothers who binge drink in the first three months of pregnancy. Thousands more Scots children are suffering from less obvious symptoms such as learning difficulties caused by women who drink too much in the later stages of pregnancy, according to a new report. The study, which has been sent to both the UK and Scottish parliaments, warns too much emphasis has been placed on the cost of adults misusing alcohol, and the impact on their unborn children has been ignored. Dr Jonathan Sher, director of research, policy and programmes at Children in Scotland, which has more than 450 members including children's charities and community groups, compiled the report. The study warns that Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the less obvious Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are entirely avoidable and completely incurable. The syndrome results in visible birth defects - including a malformed face - and damage to the brain and organs which can be fatal. The disorder is more difficult to diagnose and results in symptoms that include problems with concentration and learning. Dr Sher said: "Foetal alcohol syndrome is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It is easier to diagnose because the damage can be seen. Thousands more children, teenagers and adults across Scotland have suffered serious harm to their brains that is invisible, but continues to have a negative impact on their learning, behaviour, wellbeing and life chances." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100305/0a5cae68/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Fri Mar 5 19:43:01 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 13:40:12 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Unborn are paying heavy price for damage done by alcohol: Scotland Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100305194252.04902438@ncf.ca> http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/herald-view/unborn-are-paying-heavy-price-for-damage-done-by-alcohol-1.1009920 Herald Scotland Comment Unborn are paying heavy price for damage done by alcohol Published on 1 Mar 2010 The truly alarming statistic that at least 900 children in Scotland are suffering severe damage caused to the brain and organs before birth by foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and that thousands of others have learning and behavioural difficulties as a result of their mothers' drinking during pregnancy must concern us all. The report by Dr Jonathan Sher, director of research, policy and programmes at Children in Scotland, should act as a warning that policy on alcohol in both Scotland and the UK has largely ignored the dangers to unborn children. The Scottish Government's Alcohol Bill has produced extensive lobbying of MSPs, mainly on the contentious proposal to set a minimum price at which a unit of alcohol can be sold. At present, this is unlikely to become law because it does not have the support of the opposition parties at Holyrood. Nevertheless there is concern across all parties at the mounting alcohol-related damage in Scotland to both individuals and society in terms of ill-health and criminal activity. Both of these can apply to children and adults affected by FAS and the wide-ranging foetal alcohol syndrome disorder (FASD) which can include congenital heart problems and attention deficit disorder. Once the damage has been caused to developing brains and organs in the womb it cannot be reversed. Yet the lifelong effects are completely avoidable by not drinking alcohol during pregnancy. The most critical time is the first three months of gestation, so a foetus can be harmed even before a woman knows she is pregnant. Changing behaviour to prevent the growing toll of damage, therefore, requires education rather than regulation. Forrester Cockburn, Emeritus Professor of Child Health at Glasgow University, believes that young women are not sufficiently aware of the dangers of consuming alcohol during pregnancy, although such is the range of potential problems that it is not possible to specify a safe limit for expectant mothers. Scotland's chief medical officer, Dr Harry Burns, has said that he believes the incidence of FASD in Scotland has been significantly underestimated and that it is directly linked to anti-social behaviour. Dr Sher's report coincides with a joint statement to MSPs by eight major children's charities warning that excessive parental drinking is seriously damaging many children's lives. Their lobbying for minimum pricing ought to carry as much weight as that of the drinks industry. Nevertheless while the arguments continue over the effectiveness of minimum pricing, in the light Dr Sher's report on FAS, the call by the charities to include harm caused to other people when measuring the damage from alcohol should be accepted by MSPs. The despairing calls to ChildLine are the unassailable evidence that the extent of alcohol abuse goes far beyond the health and crime statistics. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100305/95c7b15a/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 09:01:12 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 14:16:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Unadoptable: Saskatchewan Part 1 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306080951.04749cc0@ncf.ca> [These articles are not all on FASD specifically, but I have decided to post to FASD-Canadian_link all 10 articles in this 5-part series from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. They reveal lack of permanency, uncertainty & frustrations for children and families, many of whom have FASD.]ER "...Hope had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy..." [Also published on Feb. 23 in the Regina Leader-Post By LANA HAIGHT Saskatchewan News Network with the title: Stuck in the Saskatchewan system] www.canada.com 23 Feb 2010 The StarPhoenix Lana Haight of The StarPhoenix Saskatoon Unadoptable Stringent system frustrates family ? We need to redefine family. How can you say that we are not family? Our society is defining family solely by blood ties. Until we revisit what family is, nothing is going to change.? ?Jane, Hope?s foster mother Part 1 of a five-part series [Photo] -SP Photo by Richard Marjan Three-year-old Hope has been cared for by the same parents since she was four months old, but the couple is still jumping through hoops to permanently adopt her There was nothing attractive about the baby girl and yet Jane knew immediately that Hope belonged in her family. ?She was a little bit scary. Her head was shaved. Mothers know their children. I saw her and I just knew,? said Jane. Hope had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, but Jane was undeterred. ?I believe God chooses our children.? Now three years old, Hope is lagging by about two years in her development. She doesn?t walk or talk, nor does she eat solid food. ?She?s charming and engaging,? said Jane as she watched the little girl playing with a plastic airplane. ?She has no problem with confidence or self-esteem and we?re seeing some improvements.? Jane and her husband Jeff are teaching the little girl baby sign language. She has learned about 30 signs and has started babbling ?dadda? and ?mamma.? Hope has spent her whole life in foster care and has been a permanent ward of the state for the past two years. Even though Jane and Jeff have cared for Hope since she was four months old, they are still working through the process to adopt her. It is a matter of frustration for Jane and Jeff that it is taking so long when no one else wants Hope. Her birth family has had no contact with her. And her birth mother?s First Nation isn?t prepared to provide for Hope?s multiple special needs. Jane and Jeff see themselves as Hope?s parents, even if the system doesn?t. ?We need to redefine family. How can you say that we are not family? Our society is defining family solely by blood ties. Until we revisit what family is, nothing is going to change. This system is running on the notion that biological ties (are always best) and if you have some (family) connection, then you get priority,? said Jane. She points to more stringent rules and oversight of foster families, even when a family has cared for a child long-term, compared with the rules that apply to extended birth families. ?Our home studies take weeks on end. We have to provide numerous references, financial statements. We have to prove that we have new furnaces in our homes. We have to have fire evacuation plans. We have to have wills. We are investigated and investigated.? When Jane and Jeff adopted another of their foster children, they spent $7,000 on legal and court fees, including $1,200 on a court-ordered home study even though they had already had one done through the provincial government. Because the adoption was arranged privately, they were also responsible for paying for counselling for the child?s birth parents, who had asked Jane and Jeff to adopt their child. Jane and Jeff would pay the money again, in a heartbeat. When asked, they admit that not only did they pay to adopt, they saved the provincial government money in monthly foster payments to them as well as future costs to the government because their newly adopted children are living permanently in a secure and loving home. System: Call for streamlined process From page A1 ?To get into fostering, you start with a home study. To do an adoption you do a home study. To get back into fostering you do a home study and to do another adoption you do a home study. So we?ve had four home studies done with two placements. It?s unbelievable the hoops we?ve had to jump through,? said Jeff. Family recommendation: Streamline the adoption system to expedite adoptions, process paperwork faster, move cases through the courts without delays. Wednesday: Family calls for earlier adoptions The StarPhoenix contacted the Ministry of Social Services requesting access to foster families to tell their stories, with the guarantee of anonymity, but was denied its request. We also contacted the First Nations Child and Family Services Agencies throughout the province and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations for information and was not provided any. In the end, we used our own network of contacts to find families willing to talk about their experiences. The names of the families and the children have been changed for this series. In some cases, the law required it because the children could not be identified. In other cases, the families requested it because they don?t want backlash from the system. lhaight@sp.canwest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/7cf4a486/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:42:02 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Families say they fear child welfare system: Sask. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306081029.047555d0@ncf.ca> [Also published on Feb. 23 in the Regina Leader-Post with the title: Families worried about authorities] www.canada.com 23 Feb 2010 The StarPhoenix By Lana Haight of The StarPhoenix Families say they fear child welfare system 2 ? We were out-and-out told we were blacklisted because we adopted at a time when they did not endorse foster families adopting. They were it.? very upset that we did ? former foster parents who adopted Because the identity of children in foster care is protected under provincial law, foster parents cannot be identified, either. But the need for anonymity in this series went beyond the legalities. ?Truthfully, our names, you could use. We?re in a position now where we aren?t really worried about ticking anybody off downtown so it?s OK,? said Jane, who with her husband is nearing the end of the adoption process. ?Isn?t it sad that here we are making up names because we could get our hands slapped and they (in the Ministry of Social Services) have all the power.? Jane and Jeff speak from experience. ?After we adopted our (first) daughter, we were blacklisted downtown (where Social Services offices are located). We were out-and-out told we were blacklisted because we adopted at a time when they did not endorse foster families adopting. They were very upset that we did it. When we wanted to reopen our file to foster, one of the upper bureaucrats down there stonewalled because we dared to adopt.? Foster parents, adoptive parents and grandparents interviewed stressed they have encountered some social workers who really did care and were concerned first and foremost about the children. But they all have negative stories to tell as well. ?There is a real concern that if you tick off the wrong person downtown, and we all know that in fostering, whether you tick off your own direct worker or a supervisor or one of the upper muckity mucks, there are repercussions. We are very much put in our place and shown that we don?t have authority. It?s a very sad commentary that we are making up names.? John and Judy were unsure they wanted to tell the story of their grandson Nolan, even with the guarantee of anonymity. ?I knew that we already had paid a huge price,? said Judy, referring to an incident that scared and angered her and John. Nolan, who was in foster care, was living with John and Judy while they and their son, Tom, waited for Tom to be granted full custody of Nolan. ?Once we started asking questions (of the Ministry of Social Services), (Nolan) was gone and back to foster care. It was like the foster parents and us, we were the bad people,? said Judy. ?What got me is they came out and spent an afternoon with us and then denied they were ever there,? added John. Tom has sole custody of Nolan, but the family is still wary of social services. ?You are very afraid of what might happen. You look over your shoulder all the time and wonder,? said Judy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/83324558/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:44:34 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:10 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] SP Special report: Saskatchewan 2 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306081117.047d2fd0@ncf.ca> [This article combined with the one called "Doing their best: Family calls for earlier adoptions" were published together in the Regina Leader-Post on Feb. 24 with the title "Chances of adoption lessen the longer a child is in foster care" One year ago, Saskatchewan Children?s Advocate issued a scathing report on foster home overcrowding in the Saskatoon area. [Photo of close-up of a child's face] RICHARD MARJAN/StarPhoenix Members of one Saskatchewan foster family, who have taken numerous infants into their home, recommend the limit on the length of time a child is in foster care should be between 19 and 24 months,or should be within the first 12 months of life to increase the child?s chances of finding a permanent home. ?Kids in crisis? is how Marvin Bernstein characterized the desperate situation with some families trying to care for up to 15 children and youth at the same time. The consequence: Shocking stories of abuse and neglect. This week, we tell the stories of a handful of children stuck in the system. Today is the second of a series. www.canada.com 24 Feb 2010 The StarPhoenix SP SPECIAL REPORT One year ago, the Saskatchewan children?s advocate issued a scathing report on foster home overcrowding in the Saskatoon area. Kids in crisis is how Marvin Bernstein characterized the desperate situation, with some families trying to care for up to 15 children and youth at the same time.The consequence: Shocking stories of abuse and neglect. This week, SP reporter Lana Haight tells the stories of a handful of children stuck in the system. The children are among hundreds who are apprehended by child welfare workers every year in Saskatchewan and placed in foster homes. Some are in care for a few short weeks while others remain in care for years. The caregivers point to a rigid system where birth rights appear to trump the well-being of the children. Undeterred, they have gone to bat for the children and battled the system with mixed results. Based on their stories, we have identified recommendations that would have made a difference in the children?s lives ? ultimately freeing them from the system. Today: Family calls for earlier adoptions. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/8e0ee46e/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:44:43 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:13 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Doing their best: Family calls for earlier adoptions: Sask. 2 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306081138.0474cf18@ncf.ca> www.canada.com 24 Feb 2010 The StarPhoenix Lana Haight of The StarPhoenix Doing their best Family calls for earlier adoptions 2 From page A1 Part 2 of a five-part series [Photo] SP Photo by Richard Marjan The adoption process can drag on for so long that adoptable babies become hard-to-adopt kids, say some foster parents A lot of little ones have passed through the home of foster parents Gary and Bev. In 3 1 years, they have cared for 14 2 children ? most of them babies. ?A lot of them were here for only a week or two,? said Bev as she cradled Stevie, the latest temporary addition to their family. Stevie is just weeks old and is addicted to narcotics because his mother was using drugs before he was born. He needs to be held almost around the clock because of his addiction and the withdrawal process he?s going through. ?He?s here just a little bit until his parents get their act together,? said Bev. ?It?s great working with parents who totally are sincere and they try hard and they work hard and they get their child back. It?s the best feeling.? And while Gary and Bev are hopeful that Stevie?s parents will be able to take custody of and care for the baby and his three older siblings, who are also in foster care, they don?t always feel that way about birth parents. ?We see families who are getting three, four, nine, 10 years worth of chances,? said Gary. ?What they?re doing is taking kids who are adoptable and setting them up for being not adoptable. When you have a one-or two-year-old, that?s the time to get them into a permanent home.? They point to another little girl in their home. Sixteen-month-old Charity is from a First Nation. She was born 12 weeks early, spent six weeks in intensive care and then was placed in a foster home with 14 other children. She was moved to Gary and Bev?s, where she has lived for the past 13 months. After it was determined by social workers that neither birth parent is able to care for the little girl, they began looking for family members. They found an aunt who said she would take Charity. ?The aunt has never met (Charity) and never asked about her in the past nine or 10 months (since she learned about her). She has no genuine interest in (Charity) and now there are concerns about the home study,? said Bev. After a court date was set for the Ministry of Social Services to be granted permanent custody of Charity, the aunt is ?back in the picture? for a second time. Gary and Bev think the best place for the little girl is with them. They are taking steps to adopt her, but are not holding out hope the adoption will happen any time soon. The last time they adopted one of their foster children it took repeated trips to family court, hiring a lawyer and more than $7,000 in legal and other fees. Dawn, who has lived with Gary and Bev since she was 10 days old, is now 3 1 years old 2 and legally their daughter. With the three little ones ? Dawn, Charity and Stevie ? Gary and Bev and their teenage daughter are busy almost around the clock. Gary and Bev also have two adult sons whom they adopted when they were elementary-school age. There are visits from social workers (the foster family and each child in care are assigned to their own worker) and arranged meetings with birth parents (when they are interested). Then there are medical appointments ? lots of them, especially for Stevie as doctors work to regulate his morphine intake. That?s all in addition to meals, laundry, school and work. But they don?t complain. ?We love babies. It?s a time in their lives when we think we can provide the most impact by holding and nurturing. We have been blessed and we are able to arrange our lives so we can do that,? said Gary. ?It?s our calling,? added Bev. ?It?s something we find joy in. Foster care and adoption is our journey.? Family recommendation: Place a short time limit on the length of time a child is in foster care, perhaps 19 to 24 months or the first 12 months of life, before that child is available for adoption to increase the child?s chances of becoming adopted. Thursday: A social worker?s perspective; and Child welfare review panel begins work The StarPhoenix contacted the Ministry of Social Services requesting access to foster families to tell their stories, with the guarantee of anonymity, but was denied its request. We also contacted the First Nations Child and Family Services Agencies throughout the province and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations for information and was not provided any. In the end, we used our own network of contacts to find families willing to talk about their experiences. The names of the families and the children have been changed for this series. In some cases, the law required it because the children could not be identified. In other cases, the families requested it because they don?t want backlash from the system. lhaight@sp.canwest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/8391eaff/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:44:57 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:18 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Taking pride in her job: Sask. 3 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306084145.04897dd8@ncf.ca> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/Part+foster+care+series+Taking+pride+social+worker+focuses+well+being+children/2610403/story.html Star Phoenix Saskatoon Life Taking pride in her job Social worker focuses on well-being of children By Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix February 25, 2010 9:43 AM [Photo] Candace Plamondon, a mother of two preschoolers, has been a social worker for 12 years Photograph by: Greg Pender, The StarPhoenix SP SPECIAL REPORT One year ago, Saskatchewan children's advocate issued a scathing report on foster home overcrowding in the Saskatoon area. Kids in crisis is how Marvin Bernstein characterized the desperate situation, with some families trying to care for up to 15 children and youth at the same time. The consequence: Shocking stories of abuse and neglect. This week, SP reporter Lana Haight tells the stories of a handful of children stuck in the system. The children are among hundreds who are apprehended by child welfare workers every year in Saskatchewan and placed in foster homes. Some are in care for a few short weeks, while others remain in care for years. The caregivers point to a rigid system where birth rights appear to trump the well-being of the children. Undeterred, they have gone to bat for the children and battled the system with mixed results. Based on their stories, we have identified recommendations that would have made a difference in the children's lives -- ultimately freeing them from the system. Today: A social worker's perspective; and child welfare review panel begins work - - - A social worker for 12 years, Candace Plamondon has seen first-hand the shortage of foster families in Saskatchewan. "It's easy to point the finger at a system and say, 'It's not working,' or, 'Things are wrong with it.' It's another thing to step up to the plate and be part of it and try to make it better," Plamondon said from the offices of the Ministry of Social Services' child and family services in downtown Saskatoon. Plamondon, a mother of two preschoolers, says she and her husband have even thought about becoming foster parents themselves. But the family service worker says it's just not the right time for them. "I kind of already have two full-time (jobs), right? Being a mom and then coming to work. That would be like a third job," said Plamondon. "I like a challenge, but I'm not sure I'm ready for three jobs yet." During the years, Plamondon has done several jobs within child and family services. For the past six months, she has been an intake investigator -- one of eight working in Saskatoon. "Most of the day is spent out and about with children, their families, in schools, sometimes in the hospitals, or working with CBOs (community-based organizations) or working with police in just trying to assess the allegations that are being made, whether there is any accuracy to them or not." She is involved with up to as many as three or four new families each day, starting with a complaint that has been called in to the office. Apprehending children is the "worst-case scenario," said Plamondon. "Most of the time, we are working with (families) putting things in within their home, assisting getting supports in the home so they can maintain the kids in their home." For some parents, having a worker in the home a few times a week to teach positive discipline techniques is what they need. Other times, the parents need a babysitter so they can run errands. And then some parents benefit from attending parenting classes, she explains. But in some cases, the children need protection. Plamondon's top priority is to remove the children from the unsafe home and then, in working with others in her office, find a safe place for them. Family is always first on the list. Then, it's a foster home. Social workers in the placement unit are responsible for determining the best place for the children, matching the kids with foster homes. Plamondon takes great pride in her job as a family service worker. "I help kids," she tells her own children. "It can be emotionally taxing some days. Some situations are sad and people have gone through a lot in their families or in their history. And you can understand why they may need some support. Hopefully, by the end of the day, you've made a positive impact in that family and in that child's life." Her biggest struggle comes not from her job, but from people's attitudes. "I get frustrated with some of the false perceptions out there, about what we do or that we are just government workers or that we don't care -- none of that has ever been true of anybody I've ever worked with." For Plamondon, it's all about the children. "Some children are just so cute you never forget them," she said, holding back tears. "If you didn't care, it wouldn't be emotional." Social worker recommendation: More families need to become foster parents. Friday: A father's family is shunned by the child welfare system. lhaight@sp.canwest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/969d28c1/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:47:28 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:21 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Child welfare panel set to begin work: Sask. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306084953.045f1798@ncf.ca> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/Child+welfare+panel+begin+work/2610406/story.html Star Phoenix Life Child welfare panel set to begin work By Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix February 25, 2010 He's been a social worker and the minister of social services, but now Bob Pringle is in charge of a comprehensive review of the child welfare system. "There are too many children coming into care. That's the bottom line. It's a fundamental issue that has to be addressed," he said. In November, the provincial government appointed Pringle chair of the review. He is joined by First Nations elder Howard Cameron, former member of Parliament Carol Skelton and April Durocher, who was placed in a foster home when she was a child. The four members met for their first day of orientation last week. For three months starting in April, they will travel the province listening to presentations from individuals, groups and organizations involved in the child welfare system. Pringle is responsible for submitting an interim report to the provincial government in June and a final report with non-binding recommendations in September. At the end of December, 6,003 children were living in "out-of-home care," such as in foster homes and group homes or with extended family. That number also includes 1,206 children who were in care on First Nations reserves. About 80 per cent of all children requiring care are aboriginal. "Families need more support," said Pringle, who added that he's especially concerned about the "gross over-representation" of First Nations children in care. "The projections are if we don't provide more supports, we're just going to be keeping more children in care, which creates less stability in their lives. That is not the solution. Foster homes and other child-care resources can't handle the numbers." While the number of children taken into care continues the rise, the provincial government has struggled to recruit more foster families. At the end of 2009, 729 families were providing foster care -- 41 fewer families than at the end of 2008. Pringle is concerned about the length of time children are staying in foster care. He also acknowledges some foster families are not providing proper care because too many children are placed in homes. "Foster parents are in a very difficult situation by overcrowding. The percentage of foster homes that are overcrowded is way too high -- there is the odd exception -- and that's putting children who are in care in some jeopardy in terms of their safety and well-being." Pringle, who calls his review "broad-based," will be examining more than just the foster-care system. The provincial government has asked him to look at all aspects of child welfare including adoption, child protection, the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and relevant provincial legislation. "I hope to hear recommendations related to affordable housing and training and access to health care and trades and education and poverty and all those issues that are supportive and preventive," said Pringle. People who want to tell their story to the panel can call 1-877-370-6511 or go the website www.saskchildwelfarereview.ca. Those who make presentations will do so behind closed doors. The consultations will not be open to the public. "There are a lot of triggers. There will be a lot of emotion. A lot of people have been touched by that system and they will want to tell their story and we need to make sure there's support for people when they do that," said Pringle. "We are going to guarantee people their privacy." It's unclear how much Pringle's review will cost taxpayers. When asked for the review's budget, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Social Services said the review's budget won't be finalized until the 2010-11 budget is determined, but the government "will resource it appropriately." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/97ff7e22/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:47:40 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:24 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] System shuns father's family: Sask. 4 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306085010.045f18e0@ncf.ca> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/System+shuns+father+family/2616151/story.html Star Phoenix Saskatoon Life System shuns father's family Grandparents, father have to fight for custody of son in foster care By Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix February 26, 2010 [Photo] Baby Nolan's grandparents didn't know he'd been born until he was two months old Photograph by: Greg Pender, The StarPhoenix, The StarPhoenix One year ago, Saskatchewan children's advocate issued a scathing report on foster home overcrowding in the Saskatoon area. Kids in crisis is how Marvin Bernstein characterized the desperate situation, with some families trying to care for up to 15 children and youth at the same time. The consequence: Shocking stories of abuse and neglect. This week, SP reporter Lana Haight tells the stories of a handful of children stuck in the system. The children are among hundreds who are apprehended by child welfare workers every year in Saskatchewan and placed in foster homes. Some are in care for a few short weeks, while others remain in care for years. The caregivers point to a rigid system where birth rights appear to trump the well-being of the children. Undeterred, they have gone to bat for the children and battled the system with mixed results. Based on their stories, we have identified recommendations that would have made a difference in the children's lives -- ultimately freeing them from the system. TODAY: A father's family is shunned by the child welfare system. - - - PART 4 OF A FIVE-PART SERIES Baby Nolan had already been in foster care for two months when his father and family learned of his birth. The baby spent another 12 months in the system before the dad was granted full custody of the boy. "I'm always sad that we didn't get to rock and cuddle him when he was a baby," said grandma Judy. She and her husband John are the primary caregivers for Nolan, now a busy 26-month-old toddler. The boy's father works out of town during the week and returns on weekends. In the summer of 2007, Judy and John received a phone call from someone saying their son's former girlfriend was pregnant. They hired a lawyer to contact the woman, but had no success. They gave up. When Nolan was born in October, his mother never told the father, nor did she identify him as such on the birth registration form. But in December 2007, the 25-year-old man was contacted by Social Services and asked to provide family medical history because the mother wanted the baby, who was apprehended at birth, to be put up for adoption. Suspicious about the situation, the man had DNA testing done, which proved his paternity. Now he was conflicted about what to do. Unsure that he could care for a baby boy, he didn't want his son to be adopted by strangers. And the birth mom didn't want the father and his family to have custody. "There's always a battle when a relationship has gone sour," said Judy. Little did the family know the battle would extend to a prolonged fight with the provincial government and its social workers, with baby Nolan caught in the middle. "It was bungled right from the start," said grandpa John. "Nobody seemed to know where to go and what to do," added Judy. "Most dads walk away from this kind of situation. They didn't know how to deal with the dad." Nolan's dad and grandma were invited to their first visit with the baby in May 2008, when he was seven months old. They arrived at an office of the Ministry of Social Services right after lunch and found the waiting room packed with about 50 other people. Two social workers met them in the waiting area and one began talking about Nolan in front of everyone, says Judy. "It was a very uncomfortable situation. (One social worker) began pointing out characteristics consistent with fetal alcohol syndrome. The other social worker tried to shush her up." Within a couple of months, baby Nolan was going to the grandparents' home for regular, and then extended, visits that were arranged between the foster family and Nolan's father and grandparents. By the end of August 2008, Nolan was living with his grandparents, but neither they nor his dad had any legal standing. The foster mom informed Nolan's social worker of the arrangement. It was another two months before anyone from Social Services visited the grandparents' home to determine its safety and suitability. "We had two social workers come out to our home. They were sent out by their supervisor. They just came to see where he was," said Judy. And in September, the family members were called to a meeting with social workers to discuss Nolan's living arrangement. By November 2008, Nolan's family and the foster family were frustrated with the social workers and the system in general. Nolan was living with his grandparents, the foster mom was receiving payment despite her objections (she used the money to purchase diapers and formula that she then passed on to the grandparents) and no one, including the family's lawyer, was able to move forward with Nolan's status. While a call made to the Regina office of the Ministry of Social Services by Judy was the "worse thing ever," it also got the ball rolling. The ministry ordered Nolan be returned to the foster family or he would apprehended. Also, the local supervisor denied knowing Nolan was living with his grandparents. However, the order came at the same time that the foster parents were dealing with the death of a family member. On the Monday, Nolan's family returned him to foster care and on the Tuesday, a social worker called Nolan's family asking that the baby come back to the grandparents' home for a few days until the foster family was able to care for Nolan again. For the first time since being involved with Social Services, Nolan's family members required criminal record checks and had to sign for his temporary custody. The silver lining in Nolan's story is he was cared for by one foster family throughout the first years of his life and he was the only foster child placed in the home at the time. And while John and Judy have kind words for a couple of the social workers they encountered, the grandparents question the actions and inaction by most of the workers and the child protection system in general. "They had no concern about (Nolan). His well-being wasn't considered," said Judy. "And they are not accountable for their resources," added John. Family recommendation: Give a father who wants custody of his child the automatic right to that custody if the mother is not interested in caring for the child. TOMORROW: Children's voices need to be heard; and Family court a delaying experience The StarPhoenix contacted the Ministry of Social Services requesting access to foster families to tell their stories, with the guarantee of anonymity, but was denied its request. We also contacted the First Nations Child and Family Services Agencies throughout the province and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations for information and was not provided any. In the end, we used our own network of contacts to find families willing to talk about their experiences. The names of the families and the children have been changed for this series. In some cases, the law required it because the children could not be identified. In other cases, the families requested it because they don't want backlash from the system. lhaight@sp.canwest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/17e8de97/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:47:51 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:26 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Children need 'voice': Sask. 5 of 5 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306085027.04746650@ncf.ca> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/story_print.html?id=2621462&sponsor= Star Phoenix Saskatoon Life Children need 'voice' Courts should hear from foster kids, family says By Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix February 27, 2010 [Photo] Three children who have been ordered returned to their birth parents Photograph by: Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix, The StarPhoenix Final instalment of a five-part series The three little girls don't understand why they are being sent home; they think they already are home. "Here's a recent photo of our family," said Brad, showing off a studio portrait of his wife and their three foster daughters shot this fall. "They wanted a family picture. So we went and had family pictures taken." Eight-year-old Meagan and seven-year-old Reagan, in matching flowered dresses, stand on either side of Brad and his wife Cheryl. Two-year-old Jill, also in a flowered dress, sits on Brad's lap. Everyone is smiling. The three sisters began their journey in the foster care system years ago. Meagan and Reagan have been placed with four or five foster families already. About 21/2 years ago, they were placed with Brad and Cheryl. Jill joined them shortly after she was born after having been placed in a different foster home at birth. The girls are from a family of 14 children with all but the oldest four siblings in foster care. The 10 kids in care have been split up among three foster families. "The courts need to hear from the kids. They need to know what the kids want," said Brad, the girls' foster dad. "Coming from us it can sound like it's a bit of an agenda, that we just want your kids. But that's not why we got into (fostering). It's just turned out that way. We believe that we can do a better job of helping them become the individuals that they can become." Several weeks ago, a family court judge, following a recommendation of aboriginal elders, ordered that all 10 children be returned to their birth parents. Brad, Cheryl and the three girls were caught completely off guard. They were under the impression the girls were to be placed permanently with Brad and Cheryl. "These kids have been sexually, physically, emotionally abused and neglected," said Brad. "When we drive past their (parent's) house, the windows are all smashed in, the door is frozen open a little bit. It's a nightmare to think these kids are going home in April." Brad hauls out three colourful photo albums. Smiles abound. There are photos of the girls at the West Edmonton Mall, at the Calgary zoo, in Whitehorse. They are water sliding, crawling on monkey bars, baking at "grandma's," and listening to "grandpa" read The Night Before Christmas. And then there are photos of the girls wearing fancy new dresses bought just for them for a "family" wedding. "They just thought that was the cat's meow -- getting brand new dresses for the wedding," said Brad. "These girls are as much part of our family as our sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews." Brad and Cheryl spend time helping the older two girls with school work and have seen them go from not being able to spell their names to being able to read beyond their grade level. They take swimming lessons and are in competitive gymnastics. They are committed to helping the girls maintain a connection with their biological family -- arranging get-togethers with the other foster families who are caring for their siblings and taking the girls to see their birth parents for scheduled visits at a Social Services office in downtown Saskatoon. Brad and Cheryl don't want to sever the girls' ties with their First Nations culture either, but they do want to break the cycle of poverty, alcoholism, abuse and child neglect. "We need to get them on the right track, let them graduate from high school. Reagan wants to be a hairdresser. Meagan wants to be a doctor. Give them the chance to do that and develop lives for themselves," said Brad. "And they need someone to give them a hug when they're scared. They need to know they are loved unconditionally and they need to learn to love unconditionally." Family recommendation: Children in the foster care system must have a "voice" -- access to a lawyer who will represent their interests throughout the process, including court hearings. The StarPhoenix contacted the Ministry of Social Services requesting access to foster families to tell their stories, with the guarantee of anonymity, but was denied its request. We also contacted the First Nations Child and Family Services Agencies throughout the province and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations for information and was not provided any. In the end, we used our own network of contacts to find families willing to talk about their experiences. The names of the families and the children have been changed for this series. In some cases, the law required it because the children could not be identified. In other cases, the families requested it because they don't want backlash from the system. lhaight@sp.canwest.com - - - SP SPECIAL REPORT One year ago, Saskatchewan children's advocate issued a scathing report on foster home overcrowding in the Saskatoon area. Kids in crisis is how Marvin Bernstein characterized the desperate situation, with some families trying to care for up to 15 children and youth at the same time. The consequence: Shocking stories of abuse and neglect. This week, SP reporter Lana Haight tells the stories of a handful of children stuck in the system. The children are among hundreds who are apprehended by child welfare workers every year in Saskatchewan and placed in foster homes. Some are in care for a few short weeks, while others remain in care for years. The caregivers point to a rigid system where birth rights appear to trump the well-being of the children. Undeterred, they have gone to bat for the children and battled the system with mixed results. Based on their stories, we have identified recommendations that would have made a difference in the children's lives -- ultimately freeing them from the system. Today: Children's voices need to be heard; and Family court fraught with delays -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/fef11c1a/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:48:00 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:29 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Delays standard in family court: Sask. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306085040.04745c20@ncf.ca> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/sports/Schenn+sinks+Blades/2323918/Delays+standard+family+court/2621468/story.html Star Phoenix Saskatoon Delays standard in family court By Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix February 27, 2010 It's Tuesday afternoon in a high-rise office building in downtown Saskatoon. The elevator doors open on the ninth floor to court officers conducting security screenings of everyone who gets off. Most head to a courtroom around the corner, where the status of children from 22 families will be reviewed. In the next hour, Justice Dan Konkin from the family division of Queen's Bench Court hears from lawyers representing the Ministry of Social Services. The two government lawyers take turns introducing the cases to the judge. Occasionally, a lawyer for a birth family interjects with the family's perspective. But more often than not, it's just the Social Services lawyers. The first case up this day is adjourned because Social Services "is trying to determine if the place is a safe place for (the child) to be," explained the lawyer. In another, the birth mother is in a 30-day rehabilitation program. Social Services is looking for other family members who may be "persons-of-sufficient-interest" to care for the children. Then there is the case of a family member who decided to apply to be a person-of-sufficient-interest, but that person wasn't present at court. "They were aware of the chambers date. You can foreclose that issue forever," said Konkin. The case is adjourned to the following week for a pre-trial conference. A set of foster parents are present, hoping to finally be granted permanent custody of a young girl who has been in their care for some time. The Social Services lawyer informs the judge, the parents and their lawyer that while the home study has been completed, the paperwork is not finished. The case is adjourned for two weeks. Adjourned for a week. Adjourned for four weeks. Adjourned for three weeks. While some of the case files are dated 2009 and a couple date back to 2007, one is dated 1994 and another 1992. A young mother stands up to ask for more time to find a lawyer to represent her after her application for legal aid was denied. She is appealing. That case, too, is adjourned for almost a month "to allow enough time to get it through the system," said Konkin. Another case. Another adjournment. The Saskatchewan child welfare system gives the impression that it's in a perpetual state of paralysis. In most cases on this winter afternoon, the children continue in their temporary status as wards of the state. It's a weekly ritual. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/c192035b/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 14:48:07 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:04:31 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Unacceptable to further delay helping children: Sask. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306085053.04745d68@ncf.ca> Editorial at the end of the series of 5 articles by Lana Haight on Child Welfare in Saskatchewan. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/Unacceptable+further+delay+helping+children/2621486/story.html Star Phoenix Life Unacceptable to further delay helping children The StarPhoenix Published: Saturday, February 27, 2010 It seems to be a horrific system frozen in time. For decades successive Saskatchewan governments have jawed, appointed study commissions, read advocate reports and been caught by conflicting recommendations about what to do to help the thousands of tiny citizens caught in the child welfare system. One can only hope that this time the panel being chaired by former MLA and current Saskatoon councillor Bob Pringle will deliver the magic bullet. But it is hard to hold hope, considering what has become of the numerous other reports and dozens of recommendations submitted to governments over the years. It is not surprising that many caught in the system, from troubled families to would-be adoptive parents to social workers to aboriginal groups to ministers of all political stripes, feel trapped by inertia. What is surprising, however, is that almost a quarter century after former provincial ombudsman David Tickell released a damming report indicating Saskatchewan's child welfare system was in crisis, provincial officials, child advocacy groups and foster families continue to complain of the crisis, inaction and endangered children. To be sure, the problems inherent in protecting the most vulnerable members of society are difficult. In 1987, after his department had mulled for three years over another in a long list of child protection reports, then social services minister Grant Schmidt speculated it might take another year before the government could draft legislation "the world can live with." If what we are talking about was the need to fix agriculture or build a road into the north, the fact that 23 years later another government is appointing another panel to study the issue would be disheartening. But we are not dealing with roads or wheat -- we are dealing with children, thousands of whom have passed through the system since Mr. Tickell reported that there aren't enough foster families, the government doesn't offer enough support to children in crisis and there is no one to advocate on their behalf. "This is a system stretched beyond its realistic limits and incapable of guaranteeing safety to children in care," Mr. Tickell told The StarPhoenix in January, 1987. "There is no doubt in my mind the longer these issues remain unaddressed, the greater the problem becomes." Saskatchewan's economy sank in the 1980s, forcing the government to deal with declining revenues and skyrocketing expectations. The 1990s was a period of desperate attempts to control deficits and debt. The last decade was spend optimistically building the infrastructure for future economic growth and diversification. Yet the province's most critical resource -- its children -- seem to have been pushed to the back burner. But as Mr. Tickell predicted, this is a debt that will come due in spades. There will be no easy or cheap way to solve this crisis, but inaction -- the course set for too many years -- is no longer an option even in a year when Premier Brad Wall has mandated his government to freeze spending. A year ago Saskatchewan's Children's Advocate Marvin Bernstein laid out a number of recommendations and asked the government to address the most critical within four months. A year later some action has been taken but the biggest movement by government was to appoint another panel. Mr. Pringle is well respected in the area of social services and advocacy -- and by all means his report should be welcome. But this shouldn't stop the government from significantly increasing resources to help families in crisis, paying for arms-length legal advocacy for every child caught in the system separate from those representing the government, the foster families, aboriginal groups and birth families. And a system in which child-care workers, adoptive parents and foster families are all frightened to speak openly on behalf of the children who should be their primary concern clearly needs to undergo a rapid cultural transformation. The government can start by putting in place a policy that protects anyone who speaks out on behalf of children from official or unofficial reprimands. It may be costly to save these children, but the cost of inaction is much greater. - - - "Democracy cannot be maintained without its foundation: free public opinion and free discussion throughout the nation of all matters affecting the state within the limits set by the criminal code and the common law." - The Supreme Court of Canada, 1938 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/51b0f3c0/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 15:22:28 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:28:05 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Kid's behaviour should be assessed before being placed in foster homes: inquest Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306152217.1019ed70@ncf.ca> "...the girl...had a long and troublesome list of issues plaguing her, including fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the functioning level of a six or seven-year-old...." Kid's behaviour should be assessed before being placed in foster homes: inquest The Canadian Press. Toronto: Mar 2, 2010. ST. CATHARINES, Ont. _ A jury looking into the death of a boy smothered by a teenage girl has recommended that children at risk to harm others be assessed before being placed in a foster home. The recommendation, directed at the Ministry of Children and Youth Services of Ontario, was one of 45 made Tuesday. The coroner's inquest jury made the recommendations after hearing testimony since Feb. 1 into the circumstances leading to the murder of Matthew Reid. The three-year-old boy, under the care of Haldimand-Norfolk Children's Aid Society, was found dead in his Welland, Ont., foster home on Dec. 15, 2005. He had been smothered with his pillow overnight by a 14-year-old girl, a Crown ward in the care of Family and Children's Services Niagara. The girl arrived in the home earlier in the day after being released from jail for stealing her Niagara Falls, Ont., foster mother's van. The girl is serving a seven-year sentence for second-degree murder. The jury heard that the girl, whose name is protected by a publication ban, had a long and troublesome list of issues plaguing her, including fetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the functioning level of a six or seven-year-old. She had temper tantrums and behaviour problems, including running away, that escalated prior to Matthew's death. Much of the inquest dealt with the girl's behaviours, troubles at school and relationship with her foster family. ``They didn't bring up Matthew enough. It was her inquest, not Matthew's,'' said his biological grandmother Ramona Jakucinskas, who was in the process of trying to adopt the boy when he was killed. ``We still don't have closure for us, for the family.'' Other jury recommendations included developing a single information system to electronically image all cases at children's aid societies in the province and that the system include the capacity to perform a keyword search of client records. Recommendations were directed to the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, Family and Children's Services Niagara, Children's Aid Society of Haldimand-Norfolk, the District School Board of Niagara, Niagara Child and Youth Services, Ministries of Health and Education and foster parent associations. (St. Catharines Standard) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/3dfbe4df/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 15:35:30 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 15:40:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Judge asks B.C. native community to rehabilitate man over prison term Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306153522.047f5388@ncf.ca> "...He suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and endured a horrendous childhood, court heard...." Judge asks B.C. native community to rehabilitate man over prison term The Canadian Press. Toronto: Mar 3, 2010. KELOWNA, B.C. _ A judge is challenging elders in a B.C. native community to rehabilitate a man instead of sending him to prison. The repeat offender, who robbed a 13-year-old boy at knifepoint, will spend several months in jail and complete three years of probation in his home reserve near Williams Lake, north of Kamloops. Prosecutors asked for a prison term of four to five years for Willie Johnny, an alcoholic and solvent abuser. But incarcerating Johnny, 36, hasn't stopped him from reoffending in the past, Judge Gale Sinclair said on Tuesday. ``It is time to try something different for Mr. Johnny's sake, and, hopefully for the sake of the community at large,'' Sinclair said. ``If I warehoused him for four to five years, I'd do nothing to address his situation or reoffending.'' Johnny threatened the boy with a knife and told him ``I'm a warrior and kill white people'' during a holdup in Lake Country last September. He let the boy go when he gave him $5. Even though the boy wasn't hurt, the crime was traumatic, Sinclair said. Johnny was convicted of two robberies and an attempted robbery in the Williams Lake area between 1992 and 2004. He used a gun in two of the crimes. He spent more than five years behind bars with no therapy or counselling. He suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and endured a horrendous childhood, court heard. ``He has continued a cycle of behaviour which has brought him back to police and the courts,'' Sinclair said. ``That is a cycle that must be broken.'' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/3bd9580c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 21:13:01 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 21:16:06 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] European Fertility Docs Urged Not to Treat Heavy Drinkers Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306211235.101be998@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 21:52:12 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 21:58:38 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Lifestyle-related factors and access to medically assisted reproduction Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306215201.04399a90@ncf.ca> ".... There is no evidence that ?light drinking?, defined as not more than 1?2 units per week or per occasion, would have adverse effects on the child's cognitive and behavioural development..." http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/dep458v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=alcohol&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on January 18, 2010 Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/dep458 FREE Full Text (PDF) Lifestyle-related factors and access to medically assisted reproduction {dagger} ESHRE Task Force on Ethics and Law, including, W. Dondorp1, G. de Wert, G. Pennings, F. Shenfield, P. Devroey, B. Tarlatzis and P. Barri Department of Health, Ethics and Society, Research Institutes CAPHRI and GROW, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands 1 Correspondence address. E-mail: w.dondorp@hes.unimaas.nl ....... Effect of alcohol consumption on the health of the child Prenatal alcohol consumption has been associated with adverse affects on embryonic and fetal development during all the stages of pregnancy. The known effects range from physical anomalies to behavioural and cognitive deficits, summarized under the umbrella term of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The type and extent of the damage is related to the timing, level and duration of the exposure. There are indications that drinking 1?2 units per day negatively affects the child's psychomotor development. In addition to this, women drinking between 2 and 6 units per day may be at a higher risk of a child that will itself develop alcohol-related problems. It is accepted that women consuming six or more standard units of alcohol per day are at risk of having a child with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), involving specific facial features, growth retardation and neurodevelopmental abnormalities. A higher risk of having a child with congenital abnormalities is also suspected in women who episodically drink six or more units (?binge drinking?). There is a debate about whether a safe level of drinking during pregnancy exists. There is no evidence that ?light drinking?, defined as not more than 1?2 units per week or per occasion, would have adverse effects on the child's cognitive and behavioural development............ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/d2107347/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 21:53:08 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 21:58:58 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] London ON - Problematic Substance Use in Pregnancy May 14 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306215235.0401d780@ncf.ca> Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:03:36 -0500 From: Bernadette Garrity Subject: Upcoming event: London ON - Problematic Substance Use in Pregnancy- A PRIMA Workshop Hello everyone, Please consider the following upcoming learning opportunity. Please feel free to share with any appropriate community partners. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Problematic Substance Use in Pregnancy A PRIMA Workshop The Middlesex London Health Unit, in partnership with PRIMA (Pregnancy Related Issues in the Management of Addictions), is offering a workshop on Problematic Substance Use in Pregnancy. This workshop is designed for physicians, nurses, midwives, nurse practitioners, PHNS, and addiction workers, and anyone working with pregnant women who may be using substances. This will be an intensive all-day workshop to increase the knowledge of health and addiction professionals about problematic use of a variety of substances including prenatal use of alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, marijuana, heroin and prescription opiates. A discussion on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder will also be included. DATE: Friday, May14th, 2010 TIME: 8:00am ? 5:30 pm LOCATION: Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 1150 Wellington Road South, London ON Registration: $40 (This fee includes lunch, and two nutrition breaks.) Payment to : Middlesex London Health Unit For more information or to register please contact: Bernadette Garrity, PHN, Middlesex London Health Unit, 50 King St. London ON N6A 5L7 bernadette.garrity@mlhu.on.ca Phone: (519) 663-5317 ext 2272 Fax: (519) 663-9581 Note: 1.For more information about PRIMA : www.addictionpregnancy.ca 2. Main Pro Credits can be earned though this workshop. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/459494e3/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 21:54:02 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 21:59:02 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Take page from anti-smoking crusade, alcohol forum urges Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306215345.0450ed10@ncf.ca> "...Drunk driving and fetal alcohol syndrome aside, the general public looks on alcohol as a fun social lubricant with few negative side effects..." http://www.insidetoronto.com/community/health/article/626102--take-page-from-anti-smoking-crusade-alcohol-forum-urges Inside Toronto LISA QUEEN Mar 03, 2010 - 12:51 PM Take page from anti-smoking crusade, alcohol forum urges [Photo] Take page from anti-smoking crusade, alcohol forum urges. Health officials met in North York this week at the seventh annual Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity forum hosted by OPHA and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Photo/STOCK IMAGE Health officials who met in North York this week want to highlight the boos in booze. "Alcohol is a major contributor to chronic disease, social problems and trauma in Ontario," Nancy Landgon, chair of the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA) alcohol working group, told a forum Tuesday, March 2 at North York Memorial Hall beside the North York Civic Centre. Landgon was one of several speakers to address the seventh annual Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity forum hosted by OPHA and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Drunk driving and fetal alcohol syndrome aside, the general public looks on alcohol as a fun social lubricant with few negative side effects, if you don't count the occasional hangover. But officials at the conference said they want to start taking a page from the anti-smoking crusade. By now, just about everybody knows the health dangers and social stigmas associated with lighting up a cigarette. But it wasn't so long ago that smoking was publicly promoted as the domain of sexy women and rugged men. However, in the last generation or so, smoking has gone from cool to lame as people learned about its negative side effects, ranging from lung cancer and emphysema to bad breath and the high cost of buying cigarettes. Like tobacco advertising of years ago, alcohol is now promoted, especially for young people, as a way to have fun, relax and become more appealing to others. According to Dr. Maristela Monteiro, the senior advisor for alcohol and substance abuse at the Pan American Health Organization, alcohol is a leading cause of premature deaths, through both injury and illness, in the Americas including Canada and the U.S. Broken down by global region, Europeans drink the most, Monteiro said. But the consumption of alcohol in the Americas is 50 per cent higher than the international average, she added. According to Langdon, Canada and Ontario have made some headway in introducing policies that address the negative impacts of alcohol consumption such as bringing in tougher drunk driving laws and introducing graduated drivers licensing with a zero tolerance for drinking. "There is a lot to be happy about, but at the same time, there is a lot of work to be done," she said. Landgon and Norman Giesbrecht, a senior scientist with CAMH, outlined several challenges related to responsible alcohol consumption such as the unbalanced marketing of liquor promoting its benefits over its risks, international trade agreements that fail to address public health concerns, the threat of privatizing the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), and the increase of high-risk drinking since 1996. Dr. Thomas Babor, a professor and chair in the department of community medicine and health care with the University of Connecticut's school of medicine, said the alcohol industry goes to great lengths to market its products, especially to young people. Evidence suggests the best way to counter those messages may not be through public education campaigns. In fact, public service announcements can actually arouse young people's interest in booze, Babor said. Instead, he said there are more effective methods of mitigating the negative effects of drinking including setting minimum prices, having a government monopoly control the sale of alcohol, reducing the percentage of alcohol in products, conducting random breathalyzer tests, raising the minimum age required to purchase alcohol, having high government taxes on booze, bringing in graduated drivers' licences with strict alcohol policies, and lowering legal blood alcohol limits for drivers. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/f3185773/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sat Mar 6 22:31:19 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sat Mar 6 22:34:27 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Jail HIV-positive man for 3 years: Crown: Ottawa Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100306223108.03a81f20@ncf.ca> "...McGarry argued that Bruneau, who suffers from fetal alcohol effects and was bounced in and out foster homes before being adopted by a family in the Ottawa valley, had suffered from ? systemic discrimination?..." www.canada.com 19 Feb 2010 Ottawa Citizen BY ANDREW SEYMOUR Jail HIV-positive man for 3 years: Crown Woman ?traumatized? after transgendered sex partner exposed her to potentially fatal virus ?80 times? An HIV-positive transgendered man who had unprotected sex with a woman 80 times without disclosing his disease should be sentenced to three years in prison, a prosecutor argued Thursday. Justin Bruneau, 33, made a ?calculated decision? not to tell the woman he was seeing that he was HIV-positive, repeatedly putting the woman?s life at risk over the course of their four-month relationship which ended last July, said assistant Crown attorney Andrea Blakeley. It was sheer ?good fortune? that the woman ? who underwent months of nervewracking testing and has been left ? traumatized? by the crime, the court heard ? has not contracted HIV, he said. ?This was an intimate relationship where the trust was breached,? said Blakeley, who argued the sentence must focus on not only denunciation and deterrence, but the protection of the public. Bruneau ? who, at the time, was HIV-positive for more than 10 years ? had a ?conscious plan? not to disclose his status to the woman, said Blakeley. ? The question was asked. ?Are there any STDs I need to be aware of ?? and the answer was, ? No.? It was planned. It was deliberate,? said Blakeley, arguing that the crime was particularly aggravating in that Bruneau told another woman he was dating about the HIV, but not the victim. ? That?s 80 times that ( the victim) was exposed to a potential fatal virus. Increased exposure, increased risk,? said Blakeley Bruneau?s lawyer, Brett McGarry, argued that his client, an Ojibwa man who the court heard goes by the names Justin and Jasmine, should receive a sentence of between 12 and 18 months in light of his Aboriginal background and troubled life, which included alcohol and drug addiction, as well as gender identity issues and his HIV positive status. McGarry argued that Bruneau, who suffers from fetal alcohol effects and was bounced in and out foster homes before being adopted by a family in the Ottawa valley, had suffered from ? systemic discrimination? and the sentence should take that into account. See page 24 HIV: Victim hopes man gets help he needs From page B1 McGarry urged Ontario Court Justice Hugh Fraser to consider a rehabilitative sentence for Bruneau, who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as well as charges of assault for beating the woman during an argument and threatening to kill her 15-year-old son with a metal pole. ?A longer sentence may be culturally inappropriate and detrimental to his rehabilitation,? said McGarry, noting a psychiatrist found Bruneau used drugs to ? submerge shame? from his difficult past. In a victim-impact statement that even the judge described as ?eloquent,? the woman said she hoped Bruneau would receive the help he needs while behind bars. But the woman, who sat near the back of the courtroom next to a victim-support worker, also described how the crime left her feeling ?dirty? and had destroyed her trust in intimate relationships. ?I did not contract HIV. Not all the women Justin has been with will be so lucky ... and I feel a great sorrow for them,? said the woman, describing how she felt betrayed after learning Bruneau had lied to her. The woman only learned Bruneau was HIV-positive after talking with another of his girlfriends. Bruneau, whose long brown hair hung down the back of his red dress shirt, apologized to the victim. ?I cannot begin to express the remorse I feel. I placed you at great risk, endangering your life. I was wrong. It was dishonest of me to omit the truth. I was reckless, neglectful and selfish,? said Bruneau, adding he was ?grateful? to know the victim wasn?t HIV positive. Bruneau said he hoped he would never cause such ?pain and chaos? again. ?I pray to the creator to heal the wounds I have inflicted.? Bruneau is to be sentenced Feb. 23. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100306/6db7e921/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 7 12:14:22 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 7 12:16:04 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] FASD study at Brock University: children 8 - 16 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100307100311.05693b90@ncf.ca> March 7, 2010 [Thanks to a parent whose daughter took part in this study at Brock University in St. Catharine's, Ontario and forwarded this to Peggy Oba to send out.] [Two of Professor Ayda Tekok Kilic's Research Interests are listed as: Development and brain organization of Working Memory Developmental Neuropsychology (special emphasis on Attention Deficit Disorder, verbal and non verbal Learning Disorders, Anxiety Disorders)]ER Hello. My name is Lindsy Nicholson and I am a honours thesis student at Brock University. With the help of Professor Ayda Tekok Kilic of the Child and Youth Studies Department at Brock, I am currently conducting a study on the working memory and executive functioning of children that have been prenatally exposed to alcohol. The following is some information on the study: - We are looking for male and female children, between the ages of 8 and 16, who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol - Testing takes place at Brock University, St. Catharine's campus - Sessions take from 2-2.5 hours and we only need to see the child one time - Times for testing are very flexible, during the week and on weekends; however, we prefer not to see children after school as they are often tired - Some examples of the tests, or 'games', that we do with the children are things such as reading numbers or words to them and having them repeat them back, sorting pictures into groups, or saying a word and having them point to the picture that best describes the word - The children that we have tested so far have seemed to enjoy the tasks that we do with them - We provide compensation to you for parking - The child is paid $15 dollars for participating in the study - We take breaks when the child needs them - We will have you fill out some brief questionnaires regarding your child's behaviour - We will provide you with feedback regarding the results of the study when the study is complete We sincerely hope that you will consider having your child participate in this study on the working memory and executive functioning of children who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol. We hope that our findings will eventually help to better the diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, by contributing to the knowledge that is already known regarding the way that alcohol exposure affects the developing brain. This study has been granted approval by the Brock University Ethics Board. If you have any questions, would like more information, or would like to set up a time to bring your child in for testing, feel free to contact me at ln06vl@brocku.ca, or call me at 289 218 7361. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who has a child that would qualify and that might be interested in having their child participate. Thank you very much for your time. Lindsy Nicholson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100307/da7e4deb/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 8 19:38:30 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 8 19:40:07 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Mixing medical advice, alcohol and pregnancy Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100308193814.047cd328@ncf.ca> [Very interesting] http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/05/f-vp-strauss-alcohol-pregnancy.html CBC News Tachnology & Science SCIENCE FRICTION Stephen Strauss Mixing medical advice, alcohol and pregnancy Last Updated: Friday, March 5, 2010 | 2:03 PM ET By Stephen Strauss, special to CBC News This January, the European Society of Reproduction and Embryology made headlines after it counseled its members to refuse to provide reproductive treatment to "women used to more than moderate drinking and who are not willing or able to minimize their alcohol consumption." In its stance, the society unconsciously echoed the acidic formulation of renowned U.S. comic George Carlin: "Instead of warning pregnant women not to drink, I think female alcoholics should be told not to f**k." What is most strange about the society's reformation of Carlin's modest proposal is that it doesn't seem strange at all to modern ears. Of course, a pregnant woman's drinking is bad for the child she's carrying. Of course, some women are so addicted to alcohol that they will value it over the health of their child-to-be. And of course, some pregnant women will drink even though they are warned of the danger that their children will get fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or the broader expression of alcohol-related damage known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). And we can pronounce "of course" so emphatically because it feels as if people have known forever that alcohol and pregnancy don't mix. Even if the first time the syndrome was formally named and presented to the wider world was in a 1973 paper in the British journal Lancet, surely, ancients in many parts of the world must have realized that drink damages a fetus. Surely, they must have seen that alcohol could lead to deformed faces, stunted growth, torn memory, stumbled gait, linguistic gaffes, impulsiveness, failures at learning and a dozen other physical and cognitive manifestations that define people as fitting into one or the other of the five categories of FASD. Surely, for thousands of years, pregnant women must have been counseled to cut down or eliminate their drinking. Surely not. And that explains something about why drinking and pregnancy has remained such a conflicted area of human experience. Biblical imbibing Consider the following. Last year, James Sanders, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Alberta, wrote an article in the Canadian Journal of Pharmacology examining whether our forebears were aware of prenatal alcohol exposure and its effects, His conclusion: "Historical records do suggest an awareness of an interaction between alcohol and reproduction of some kind, as early as biblical times. However, these records do not necessarily suggest an awareness of the deleterious effects of alcohol on the developing fetus." Much of Sanders's evidence is rooted in the learned, literate, passionate papers dissecting historical references to fetal alcohol syndrome written by Ernest Abel, a Canadian-born academic who now works at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University in Detroit. Abel's scholarship not so much deconstructs as demolishes efforts to find references to fears about alcohol's effects on fetal development in the Bible or the works of the Greeks, Romans and later Europeans. Yes, there were worries about the effects of alcohol, but they centred on procreation rather than pregnancy. People knew if a man drank too much, he might have trouble getting aroused during sex. They knew that alcohol makes some men wild and that in that state, they might rape women. But they didn't know drink was harmful for a pregnant woman. Abel shows how all the remarks that seemed to suggest otherwise - for example, Roman Aulus Gellius's statement: "If a drunken man gets a child, it will never have a good brain" - either were never said or meant something else. In terms of the latter, when the biblical Samson's mother was told not to drink while pregnant with him, it was not to protect her child from the ills of alcohol but rather, says Abel, to make him from birth a Nazirite - an individual who didn't drink or cut his hair. In more modern times, the London gin epidemic of 1720 to 1750 did create admonitions against drinking during pregnancy, but as soon as the mass drunkenness came to an end, doctors and the common person apparently forgot about alcohol's link to what was called "weak, fevered, distempered children." This was so surprising to me that I gave Abel a call and asked whether there is any evidence that any people anywhere were aware of FAS in the past. His tart response: "In a word, no." So, why did something that seems so evident now appear absolutely opaque in the past? Three obvious but not exclusive reasons come to mind. Intrinsically small numbers The figure regularly quoted (http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/33/3/195.pdf) is that somewhere between one and three in 1,000 newborns in North America have FAS and a bit less than one per cent of infants will show some alcohol-related effects. Effectively, it looks as if FAS numbers are too small and too confusing for people in the past to have easily seen a connection between drinking and fetal physical and mental deformities that could have come from other factors. No clear negative cause and effect Even if the absolute numbers are small, if you could have seen that every woman who drank daily or binged occasionally had strange and deformed children, that would have directed ancient midwives and others to the deep truth about the poisonous effects of alcohol on the fetus. But that one-to-one correlation doesn't exist. A 2007 analysis of 14 studies looking at the effects of binge drinking on the fetus found "no convincing evidence of adverse effects of prenatal binge drinking." There was only a "possible exception" when it came to brain functions. There also is not a direct cause and effect relationship between drinking habits of different nationalities and the rates of alcohol-related complications in the fetus. In a 1998 paper, Abel points out that the French drink 13 litres of alcohol per capita a year and the Americans 7.3 litres. Yet, the FAS rate in the U.S. is nearly a third higher than in France. He came up with a suite of explanations for this discrepancy, including binge drinking, the French habit of drinking alcohol mostly at meals and the possibility that drinking beer is more likely to lead to FAS than drinking wine. But still, even if they wanted to believe too much drinking was bad for them, people in the past were faced with this paradox: the great drinking countries of the world aren't necessarily the centres of FAS-type symptoms. Potential benefits of drinking All of the above assumes that we know for certain that complete abstinence during pregnancy is best for the baby. And we don't. A study of 18,553 British households reported last year that if a mother drank one or two drinks a week during pregnancy, her sons had fewer behavioural and hyperactivity problems, and her daughters had fewer peer-related and emotional problems than children of mothers who abstained. But even more striking, "boys born to light drinkers had higher cognitive ability test scores compared with boys born to abstainers." There are a number of confounding factors in this report ? the higher economic and educational status of casual-drinking mothers among others ? and these would have confused a wise person in the past as much as they do us today. It might, indeed, look as if some drinking makes for brighter, better-behaved children. Mixed messages All of which feeds into what Gideon Koren, director of the Motherisk program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, describes as "[doctors] speaking out of both sides of their mouth." Koren regularly tells panicked women who drank before they knew they were pregnant that there is no evidence that a little drinking - even if it was a binge - is going to damage their child. Out the other side of his mouth, he also tells the same women that because nobody knows the exact limits of safe drinking, they shouldn't drink at all. Which leads me to two disparate observations. I have been writing over the last little while about electronic health records. If you were looking for an absolutely perfect example of how researchers having access to everyone's health records might transform medicine, it is in the confused and confusing domain of FAS and FASD. When we collect information on every pregnant woman, her habits ? and otherwise ? her ethnicity, her economic status, and match these to the health data on her children, we should be able to speak much more authoritatively about how much alcohol an individual pregnant woman can safely drink and when. That would allow us to replace guesstimates and fears with that singular thing that differentiates the medical wisdom of the present from the intuitions of human medicine of the past: real data. But lacking that, I propose that we all tweet the Nobel foundation and recommend that George Carlin be awarded a post mortem Nobelesque prize for the funniest, truest, most profane contribution by a non-scientist to helping us confused moderns understand why medical advice on alcohol and pregnancy doesn't always make sense. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/05/f-vp-strauss-alcohol-pregnancy.html#ixzz0hdOmvUhj Ernest Abel's articles on FAS Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: The 'American Paradox' Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: The origins of a moral panic Was the fetal alcohol syndrome recognized by the Greeks and Romans? Gin Lane: Did Hogarth know about fetal alcohol syndrome? Was the fetal alcohol syndrome recognized in the ancient near-East? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100308/8bb673ef/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 8 20:19:24 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 8 20:22:05 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Officials: Intervention, 'retraining the brain' crucial in fight against FASD Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100308201914.05d44728@ncf.ca> http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_0ab8e3c0-0c65-11df-9d28-001cc4c03286.html Rapid City Journal Rapid City, South Dakota Opinion Officials: Intervention, 'retraining the brain' crucial in fight against FASD Lynn Taylor Rick Journal staff | Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 6:00 pm Teachers, parents and caregivers can greatly improve the outcome for people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders by intervening early in life. "An early diagnosis is really important," said Deb Evensen, a fetal alcohol disorders expert and special education teacher from Alaska. "Diagnosis makes a difference." Evensen spoke Thursday during a roundtable discussion on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, an umbrella term describing the disabilities that can occur in a person whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol consumption permanently damages the brain of the fetus, causing physical deformities as well as mental, behavioral and learning disabilities, Evensen said. Each year, an estimated 40,000 babies will be born with fetal alcohol disorders in the United States, said Helen Usera of the Chiesman Center for Democracy's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center. The Chiesman Center organized the roundtable event to improve that statistic by bringing together resources in the state, Usera said. The Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center is designed to be a single-stop agency to direct parents and educators to the appropriate agencies for diagnosis and treatment of fetal alcohol disorder, Usera said. "There are a lot of good things going on ...," she said. "It's just getting the awareness out there." Usera said medical research has discovered that early intervention -- even during adolescence -- can actually "retrain the brain," making the need for early intervention all the more critical. Evensen, who has worked in fetal alcohol disorder education in Alaska, Canada and Europe, explained that alcohol acts as a solvent on developing fetal brain cells. "Alcohol causes excessive brain death," she said. "When you lose cells when your brain is being built, ... you lose the potential of hundreds of thousands of cells." It also confuses developing cells, causing them to migrate to the wrong spots within the brain, Evensen said. Imaging pictures show that certain parts of the brain are deformed or much smaller in people who have had fetal alcohol exposure. "It changes the design and neurochemistry of the brain ... and it's permanent," Evensen said. "Their brain is actually really built differently." While physical deformities, including things such as sloping eyes and thin lips, can indicate alcohol exposure in the uterus, many people with fetal alcohol disorders show no outward signs. "You can't tell by looking," Evensen said. Evensen said a person exposed to prenatal alcohol may have a normal appearance, IQ and even normal cognitive abilities, but may have a delayed social and emotional development and difficulty solving problems and processing information. "Their ability to problem solve is simply not there," Evensen said. People with fetal alcohol disorders have a high incarceration rate due to an inability to understand cause and effects and a difficulty comprehending the legal system. Yet, for all the discouraging possibilities, all is not lost. "With the right support, there are some really happy outcomes," Evenson said. Evensen said parents and educators can develop strategies to help people with fetal alcohol disorders manage their lives successfully. The first step is structure. "Structure is the miracle for people with fetal alcohol disorders," she said. Parents and teachers can also teach habit patterns that will stay with a person suffering from the disorders throughout their lifetime. She uses the example of one Alaskan family who adopted a child with fetal alcohol disorders. Because they knew that young girls with the disorders are often easily manipulated and end up having unwanted pregnancies, they implemented a habit for her when she was 23 months old. Each morning, they gave their daughter a vitamin. When she became older, they substituted the vitamin with a birth control pill. The daughter is now in her early 30s, preparing to marry, and has never had a pregnancy. The habit of taking a pill every morning continues. "It's teaching habit patterns, rote learning, with a lot of support," Evensen said. While there are new developments in caring for people with fetal alcohol disorders, prevention should remain a priority, Evensen said. Evensen displayed the results of a South Dakota survey that showed women can and will change their drinking behavior once educated about fetal alcohol disorders. Health professionals need talk to patients more thoroughly about the damage of alcohol during pregnancy. "Our medical people aren't asking the questions," she said. "That's a place to start." It's also time to start putting money in the right places, Evensen said. States such as Alaska have allocated money toward the problem and created agencies, but too little of the money is going to the people on the ground and toward education and awareness, she said. "We have to get really real about it," she said. "I think that FASD is the elephant in the living room," she said. "We're talking about everything else but ..." Contact Lynn Taylor Rick lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com or 394-8414. What are fetal alcohol spectrum disorders? Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:25 pm Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASD, is an umbrella term describing the physical, mental and social disabilities that can plague a person who has had prenatal exposure to alcohol. Nationally, FASD affects 40,000 infants each year, according to the Chiesman Center for Democracy's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center in Rapid City. About 7,759 people in South Dakota are suspected of having FASD with an annual cost of caring for them at $17.9 million. About 22.1 percent of pregnant women in South Dakota admit to drinking alcohol in their first trimester. In South Dakota, there are various organizations that diagnosis and/or treat FASD. The Chiesman Center for Democracy's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center provides links and references to those organizations. It can be reached at 341-4311 or by going to http://chiesman.org/development/fasd_center/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100308/641aba41/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 8 20:19:38 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 8 20:22:12 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] FASD and the law: South Dakota Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100308201930.05d44498@ncf.ca> "...Even though Van Norman said he often realized his clients had the underlying brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, he could do little to help them using that defense. Currently, FASD isn't officially listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,....Without it, lawyers and judges can do little to ensure that justice is served to FASD people,..." http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/article_c0f3efbe-0c64-11df-9e5c-001cc4c03286.html Rapid City Journal Rapid City, South Dakota Opinion FASD and the law Lynn Taylor Rick Journal staff | Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:25 pm Rapid City attorney Robert Van Norman knows a lot about how the law intersects with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. As a former public defender, Van Norman said a many of his public defense clients suffer from the fetal alcohol disorders. His recollection isn't surprising, considering that an estimated 35 percent of people with the disorders have been in jail or prison at some point, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. People with fetal alcohol syndrome disorders can suffer from a range of symptoms that may put them at odds with the law, including poor impulse control and difficulty understanding cause and affect. Lawyers also argue that they can be highly suggestible and unable to give reliable testimony. Even though Van Norman said he often realized his clients had the underlying brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, he could do little to help them using that defense. Currently, FASD isn't officially listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a guideline written by the American Psychiatric Association that covers all accepted mental health disorders. Without it, lawyers and judges can do little to ensure that justice is served to FASD people, Van Norman said. "These young people will never fit into the system as it is," he said. "This is ... one of the only times we punish people for a congenital condition." Van Norman said those within the mental health field are the ones who can lobby the American Psychiatric Association to add the condition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, often called simply the DSM. FASD has already been studied more than many of the conditions already listed, he said. For the criminal justice system to fairly treat those with FASD, it needs to finally become official. "You folks are the ones who have to succeed here," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100308/0d3d6f7d/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Mon Mar 8 20:46:04 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Mon Mar 8 20:51:10 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] 'I need help, ' says former soldier sentenced for abuse Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100308204554.040c0d40@ncf.ca> "...Caputo said his purpose in sentencing Vine to five years in prison,...was to help Vine obtain treatment and....." "...recommendations in Vine's aboriginal background report -- that he undergo testing for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and ...- be forwarded to prison authorities..." http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2285067 The Sault Star Sault Ste Marie, Ontario News - Local News 'I need help,' says former soldier sentenced for abuse Posted By MICHAEL PURVIS, THE SAULT STAR Updated 1 month ago [as of March 8, 2010] A former soldier from Thessalon, Ont. who molested and psychologically abused a seven-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in a federal penitentiary. Superior Court Justice Frank Caputo read out, often using the child's own words, the description of how Jean Vine, 33, touched and licked her vagina, "put his penis on her bum," and on her vagina, and forced her to perform oral sex, during roughly a year of abuse that started in November, 2006. At times, "He physically overpowered her, covering her face so she couldn't breathe," said Caputo. Vine was found guilty, following a trial in June, 2009, of inviting the child to touch his penis, and to touching her with his penis. Caputo sentenced Vine to five years for those offences, minus eight months for 156 days he spent in pre-sentence custody, and two years probation. Caputo ruled the diagnosed pedophile will serve another six months in jail for an admitted Aug. 7, 2009 attempted sexual interference in which Vine tried to put his tongue in another young girl's mouth while he was out on bail. That is on top of a sentence of 20 days he received Thursday for breaching a release condition. Prior to being sentenced, Vine, a former member of the Canadian Forces, admitted to the allegations and pleaded for treatment. "I thought it was normal, but, your honour, please send me to treatment. I need help," Vine said. A large part of Friday's sentencing dealt with a report into what systemic background factors should be taken into account in Vine's sentence. Vine was born to Inuit parents and adopted at birth by non-native parents, but encountered racism, including physical and verbal attacks, for being "raised white," Caputo said. Caputo also read at length from an evaluation by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health which labelled Vine a pedophile with a moderate to high chance of re-offending. Caputo described Jean's life as "a very tragic list of circumstances," which included being the victim of sexual abuse as a child, and the possibility of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Caputo said his purpose in sentencing Vine to five years in prison, the high end of the range suggested by the assistant Crown attorney, was to help Vine obtain treatment, and "to separate Mr. Vine from the opportunity to abuse other females." Caputo also ordered that recommendations in Vine's aboriginal background report -- that he undergo testing for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and that he receive drug and alcohol treatment at an Inuit-specific facility -- be forwarded to prison authorities. Article ID# 2285067 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100308/99f59483/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 10 21:02:30 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 10 21:04:13 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Winnipeg Free Press staffers receive awards to research FASD, reserves' water Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100310205915.03d2f6c8@ncf.ca> http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/free-press-staffers-receive-awards-to-research-fasd-reserves-water-87204632.html Winnipeg Free Press Local Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION Free Press staffers receive awards to research FASD, reserves' water By: Staff Writer 10/03/2010 1:00 AM | NEWSROOM staff at the Winnipeg Free Press are the recipients of two major journalism awards that will provide them $40,000 for in-depth research into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and drinking water on reserves. The awards are among 18 provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research this year, worth a total of $300,000. The mission of the federal CIHR is to expand scientific knowledge. "These are two very important projects that we believe will make a difference in our community," Free Press editor Margo Goodhand said. "We are thrilled to win these two awards. "The funding will go a long way to ensure we get to the places and the people we need to tell these stories." Reporter Mary Agnes Welch is heading a three-reporter team of Carol Sanders and Mia Rabson, who will explore Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders -- causes, social costs, treatments, and prevention. Assistant city editor Helen Fallding and photographer Joe Bryksa will use their award to examine the health impacts of poor drinking water on Manitoba First Nations, where in some communities residents still have to haul their water by bucket from a community pump. This is the second year the CIHR has given journalism awards to promote in-depth health coverage. Last year, Free Press health reporter Jen Skerritt won a $20,000 grant to study the history and spread of tuberculosis in Manitoba. It resulted in an award-winning six-part series, The Forgotten Disease. The CIHR said the awards program addresses the demand by Canadians for quality coverage of health-related issues. The CIHR awarded 12 $20,000 grants and six $10,000 grants. Anyone who has suffered health problems from drinking water on reserves can contact Fallding at helen.fallding@freepress.mb.ca or call 204-697-7575. Find this article at: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/free-press-staffers-receive-awards-to-research-fasd-reserves-water-87204632.html Comments -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100310/d783897c/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 10 21:37:40 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 10 21:40:10 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100310213728.0397e8f8@ncf.ca> http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100202/sc_livescience/studiesrevealwhykidsgetbulliedandrejected Yahoo! News Health Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected Robin Nixon LiveScience Contributor LiveScience.com robin Nixon livescience Contributor livescience.com ? Tue Feb 2, 10:01 am ET [Photo] AP ? In this file photo, Kevin Louie, left, a student at P.S. DuPont Elementary School, is a victim of bullying Kids who get bullied and snubbed by peers may be more likely to have problems in other parts of their lives, past studies have shown. And now researchers have found at least three factors in a child's behavior that can lead to social rejection. The factors involve a child's inability to pick up on and respond to nonverbal cues from their pals. In the United States, 10 to 13 percent of school-age kids experience some form of rejection by their peers. In addition to causing mental health problems, bullying and social isolation can increase the likelihood a child will get poor grades, drop out of school, or develop substance abuse problems, the researchers say. "It really is an under-addressed public health issue," said lead researcher Clark McKown of the Rush Neurobehavioral Center in Chicago. And the social skills children gain on the playground or elsewhere could show up later in life, according to Richard Lavoie, an expert in child social behavior who was not involved with the study. Unstructured playtime - that is, when children interact without the guidance of an authority figure - is when children experiment with the relationship styles they will have as adults, he said. Underlying all of this: "The number one need of any human is to be liked by other humans," Lavoie told LiveScience. "But our kids are like strangers in their own land." They don't understand the basic rules of operating in society and their mistakes are usually unintentional, he said. Social rejection In two studies, McKown and colleagues had a total of 284 children, ages 4 to 16 years old, watch movie clips and look at photos before judging the emotions of the actors based on their facial expressions, tones of voice and body postures. Various social situations were also described and the children were questioned about appropriate responses. The results were then compared to parent/teacher accounts of the participants' friendships and social behavior. Kids who had social problems also had problems in at least one of three different areas of nonverbal communication: reading nonverbal cues; understanding their social meaning; and coming up with options for resolving a social conflict. A child, for example, simply may not notice a person's scowl of impatience or understand what a tapped foot means. Or she may have trouble reconciling the desires of a friend with her own. "It is important to try to pinpoint the area or areas in a child's deficits and then build those up," McKown explained. Ways to help When children have prolonged struggles with socializing, "a vicious cycle begins," Lavoie said. Shunned children have few opportunities to practice social skills, while popular kids are busy perfecting theirs. However, having just one or two friends can be enough to give a child the social practice he or she needs, he said. Parents, teachers and other adults in a child's life can help, too. Instead of reacting with anger or embarrassment to a child who, say, asks Aunt Mindy if her new hairdo was a mistake, parents should teach social skills with the same tone they use for teaching long division or proper hygiene. If presented as a learning opportunity, rather than a punishment, children usually appreciate the lesson. "Most kids are so desperate to have friends, they just jump on board," Lavoie said. To teach social skills, Lavoie advises a five-step approach in his book "It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success" (Touchstone, 2006). The process works for children with or without learning disabilities and is best conducted immediately after a transgression has been made. 1) Ask the child what happened and listen without judgment. 2) Ask the child to identify their mistake. (Often children only know that someone got upset, but don't understand their own role in the outcome.) 3) Help the child identify the cue they missed or mistake they made, by asking something like: "How would you feel if Emma was hogging the tire swing?" Instead of lecturing with the word "should," offer options the child "could" have taken in the moment, such as: "You could have asked Emma to join you or told her you would give her the swing after your turn." 4) Create an imaginary but similar scenario where the child can make the right choice. For example, you could say, "If you were playing with a shovel in the sand box and Aiden wanted to use it, what would you do?" 5) Lastly, give the child "social homework" by asking him to practice this new skill, saying: "Now that you know the importance of sharing, I want to hear about something you share tomorrow." The studies are detailed in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. They were funded by the Dean and Rosemarie Buntrock Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100310/31670ae8/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Wed Mar 10 23:35:01 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Wed Mar 10 23:40:12 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] FASD Workshop in North Battleford March 22 Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100310232948.03295148@ncf.ca> Monday March 22, 2010 at North Battleford Western Development Museum (intersection of Highway 16 and 40). >Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 9:43:59 AM >Subject: Upcoming Workshop in North Battleford > >A great workshop opportunity coming up in North >Battleford around Harm Reduction, Motivational >Interviewing, and assessing women's risk of >alcohol use during pregnancy. Please distribute to your contacts. > >Thanks. >Bev Drew >FASD Prevention Coordinator >Saskatchewan Prevention Institute >1319 Colony Street >Saskatoon, SK. S7N 2Z1 >Phone: (306) 655-2459 >Fax: (306) 655-2511 >e-mail: bdrew@preventioninstitute.sk.ca >www.preventioninstitute.sk.ca (please email for brochure) >and the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute >FASD Prevention: Changing the Conversation >and Lunch and Learn >Registration Form >March 22, 2010 >North Battleford Western Development Museum >Please Fax Registration to: >(306) 655-2511 > Attending All Day, including Lunch and Learn > Attending Lunch and Learn Only >Name: >_____________________________________________________________________________ >Title:_______________________________________________________________________________ >Organization: >______________________________________________________________________ >Address: >___________________________________________________________________________ >City: >_______________________________________________________________________________ >Province:_______________________________ Postal >Code: _______________________________ >Telephone: >________________________________________________________________________ >Fax: >_______________________________________________________________________________ >E-mail: >____________________________________________________________________________ >Please indicate if you have any special dietary needs. >For More Information, Contact: >Lee Hinton, Program Manager >Saskatchewan Prevention Institute >1319 Colony Street >Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z1 >Tel: (306) 655-2512 ? Fax: (306) 655-2511 >Email: lhinton@preventioninstitute.sk.ca -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100310/a3ee5d2e/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Thu Mar 11 08:24:42 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Thu Mar 11 08:28:14 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Program in Alaska for FASD youth Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100311082219.037d5198@ncf.ca> [Looks like a great model program. Question is: how to get it funded & implemented elsewhere & in Canada?]ER "...The youth must also experience ? or be suspected of having - a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - this means the youth?s mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy...." Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:20:11 -0900 From: "Knapp, Barbara J (HSS)" Subject: Program in Alaska for FASD youth I thought you might be interested to know that we have the only Medicaid funded services for youth who meet level of care for residential psychiatric treatment and FASD. We are still struggling to get going ? but we have about 15 youth in the program right now [Please send her an email for] a brochure for our program. We?ve been in operation for about a year now . Barbara Knapp Project Director RPTC/FASD Waiver Division of Behavioral Health Dept. of Health & Social Services State of Alaska 907 269 3609 (phone) 907 269 3623 (fax) Do you know a young person who is looking for a way to develop a life program? An Alaskan Alternative to Residential Psychiatric Treatment Center (RPTC) Services for Alaskan youth (up to age 22) Modeling and Mentoring through Community Based Services State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Behavioral Health Eligibility Youth must be under age 21 years. ? Eligible for Medicaid, ? Have a Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) ? Is suspected to have a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. . How does this waiver work? A Mental Health professional will help the youth, family and an interdisciplinary support team pulls together a plan of care based on the youth?s strengths and needs. A mentor is a paid staff member who works for the Community Mental Health center who provides most of the wraparound services provided through this program. The youth and mentor will meet several times each week. When mental health treatment plan which combines existing mental health services and waiver services is approved by DBH, services can begin. Family or guardian participation A family member or guardian must agree to participate in regular discussions and evaluation of the services provided to the youth. For more information on the program contact: Division of Behavioral Health Shannon Cross LCSW 269-3619 Barbara Knapp 269-3609 Waiver Wraparound Services Mentor Services A mentor is a paid mental health worker who works for a Community Mental Health Agency (see listing of agencies in this brochure), who models positive behaviors and spends quality one-on-one time with the youth. A mentor is paired with each youth in the program to demonstrate ways positive ways to work towards life goals . A mentor may already be on staff at a mental health center, or may be a person who is recommended by the family or guardian. Residential habilitation Out-of-home living arrangements can be made for participants ? in a licensed foster home or group home. Day habilitation Services to increase living skills are available to participants who live in the family home. Supported employment This service prepares program participants to work in community-based employment. Training and Consultant services Assistance from a variety of professional and paraprofessionals who build skills of families, teachers, or community service providers ? so they can better assist participants to reach their care plan goals. . Daily and hourly respite Short term relief for caregivers The youth may be: ? Living at home with family, or ? Living in a foster or group home, or ? Considering treatment in an RPTC, or ? Transitioning back into the community after staying in an RPTC The youth must also experience ? or be suspected of having - a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - this means the youth?s mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Youth in this program will develop a life plan through a relationship with a mentor. With a mentor?s assistance, the youth will work to develop: ? Life skills ? Learning skills ? Job skills ? Manage personal relationships ? Live successfully in the community ANCHORAGE Alaska Childrens Services 4600 Abbott Road Anchorage, AK 99507 907.562.5340 Denali Family Services 1251 Muldoon Suite A Anchorage, AK 99804 907.274. 8281 Hope Inc. 540 W. International Airport Road Anchorage, AK 99518 907.561.5335 FAIRBANKS Family Centered Services of Alaska 1825 Marika Road Fairbanks, AK 99 Presbyterian House 209 40 Mile Ave. Suite 100 Fairbanks, AK 99709 907.456.6425 JUNEAU Juneau Youth Services 9290 Hurlock Ave. Juneau, AK 99803-2829 907.789.7610 Catholic Community Services 419 6th St. Juneau, AK 99801 907.463.3933 KOTZEBUE Maniilaq Behavioral Health Services Box 256 Kotzebue, AK 99762 907.442.7640 1.800.442.7822 Toll free SOLDOTNA/KENAI Central Peninsula General Hospital 250 Hospital Place Soldotna, AK 99669 907 262 4404 Frontier Community Services 4335 K Beach Road Suite 36 Soldotna, AK 99669-8280 907.262.6331 1.800.819.8194 Toll Free -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100311/07a40ac8/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Tue Mar 23 15:28:23 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Tue Mar 23 14:30:14 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] 'Nightmare' predicted as FAS makes some aboriginal youth vulnerable to gangs Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100323141051.03a3acf8@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:38:42 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:14 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] =?iso-8859-1?q?D=E9bat_sur_l=27alcool_penda?= =?iso-8859-1?q?nt_la_grossesse?= Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328173833.03dba4e8@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:39:27 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:21 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] =?iso-8859-1?q?Les_dangers_m=E9connus_de_l?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=27alcool?= Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328173916.03955070@ncf.ca> "...Chaque ann?e, l'alcoolisme est li? au Canada ? plus de 290 000 cas de violence conjugale, 127 000 crimes violents, entre 125 et 740 naissances de b?b?s affect?s par le syndrome de l'alcoolisme foetal et 900 morts sur les routes..." http://www.cyberpresse.ca/vivre/societe/201003/05/01-4257798-les-dangers-meconnus-de-lalcool.php cyberpresse.ca Vivre - Soci?t? Publi? le 06 mars 2010 ? 05h00 | Mis ? jour le 06 mars 2010 ? 05h00 Les dangers m?connus de l'alcool Mathieu Perreault La Presse Les effets secondaires de l'alcool ne sont pas ceux qu'on croit. Chaque ann?e, l'alcoolisme est li? au Canada ? plus de 290 000 cas de violence conjugale, 127 000 crimes violents, entre 125 et 740 naissances de b?b?s affect?s par le syndrome de l'alcoolisme foetal et 900 morts sur les routes. Notre journaliste s'est pench? sur les dommages collat?raux de l'abus d'alcool. Quand elle revenait du travail, au temps o? elle buvait, Nicole se d?p?chait de faire manger ses deux enfants, de leur donner leur bain et de les coucher. Elle s'impatientait quand les choses ne marchaient pas comme sur des roulettes ou si les enfants lui demandaient de jouer avec eux. Elle avait une id?e fixe : une fois qu'elle serait seule, elle pourrait se mettre ? boire.?J'?tais de mauvaise humeur avec tout le monde?, se souvient la quinquag?naire, qui a cess? de boire il y a 30 ans, que nous avons rencontr?e par l'entremise du groupe Alcooliques anonymes. ?Au travail, dans les commerces, dans la rue, tout le monde me tapait sur les nerfs. Quand quelqu'un me poussait sans faire expr?s dans l'autobus, ?a allait mal. Je me souviens qu'une fois, j'ai oblig? une ?ducatrice de la garderie o? allait ma fille ? rester deux heures plus tard, jusqu'? 20 h, parce que je ne parvenais pas ? quitter la taverne.? Pour Philippe Lagu?, chroniqueur automobile ? Radio-Canada, ce n'?tait pas la mauvaise humeur mais les bagarres qui rendaient la vie de ses proches difficile. ?On sortait avec des amis et, invariablement, s'il y avait de la bagarre, j'?tais impliqu??, dit M. Lagu?, qui a cess? de boire il y a pr?s de 20 ans. ?J'?tais arrogant et belliqueux et je comptais sur mes amis pour me tirer d'affaire. En plus, quand j'avais bu, je disais ? tout le monde leurs quatre v?rit?s. Je ne pense pas que mes blondes de ce temps-l? aient gard? un bon souvenir de moi.? Les alcooliques ne ruinent pas seulement leur propre vie. Ils ont aussi une influence ?norme sur la vie de leur famille, de leurs coll?gues, parfois sur celle de purs inconnus. ?Les alcooliques ont souvent un sentiment de culpabilit? tr?s fort ? cause du mal qu'ils ont fait ? d'autres personnes?, explique Mario Par?, intervenant ? la maison Jean Lapointe. ?Parfois, c'est trop dur et ils minimisent leurs comportements, ils font du d?ni. ?a joue un r?le important dans l'?volution de la maladie.? Un concept controvers? Les ? dommages collat?raux ? de l'alcool ont ?t? propuls?s au premier plan en 2008 par le responsable de la sant? publique du Royaume-Uni, Liam Donaldson. Dans un rapport qui a fait couler beaucoup d'encre, le Dr Donaldson a additionn? les impacts de l'?alcool passif?, qu'il a compar? ? la fum?e secondaire : 125 000 incidents de violence conjugale, 6000 naissances de b?b?s atteints du syndrome de l'alcoolisme foetal et 560 morts sur les routes britanniques. L'OMS reprend le concept dans une nouvelle strat?gie de lutte contre l'abus d'alcool, qui devrait ?tre adopt?e en mai prochain. ?C'est un concept formidable?, estime Gerald Thomas, politologue de l'Universit? Victoria. ?Nous allons monter un dossier similaire pour le Canada. Il faut vraiment mettre l'accent sur les effets n?gatifs de l'alcool, qui touchent des personnes jeunes qui ont toute la vie devant elles. En comparaison, les effets positifs de l'alcool ne se r?v?lent qu'avec la vieillesse. Pour le nombre d'ann?es de vie perdues, il est fort possible que les effets n?gatifs soient plus importants que les effets positifs.? Hubert Sacy, directeur de l'organisme ?duc'Alcool, est plus critique. ?Comparer l'alcool ? la fum?e secondaire, c'est ridicule. Il est possible de boire de l'alcool sans exag?rer et sans que ?a nuise aux personnes qu'on c?toie. Ce n'est pas possible avec la cigarette. On peut tr?s bien ?tre contre la consommation excessive d'alcool sans invoquer ce concept d'alcool passif.? Tout comme d'autres sp?cialistes de l'alcool interrog?s par La Presse, Gerald Thomas conc?de qu'il faut choisir ses mots avec soin. ?C'est ?vident que la fum?e secondaire ne peut ?tre compar?e ? l'alcool, dit M. Thomas. Mais il est utile de parler des dommages collat?raux de l'abus d'alcool parce que les buveurs ont souvent l'impression que leur consommation ne regarde qu'eux et personne d'autre.? Fraude culturelle Le concept permet d'ailleurs de viser la consommation d'alcool sans stigmatiser les buveurs, selon M. Thomas. ?Je n'ai rien contre l'id?e de prendre un verre pour se d?tendre, mais je pense que notre soci?t? propose un mod?le individualiste et consum?riste impossible ? atteindre qui nous incite ? fuir dans l'alcool ou les drogues plut?t que de remettre en question nos objectifs quand ils deviennent trop stressants.? ?Un chercheur australien d?crit ce mod?le de vie comme une "fraude culturelle". Si on r?ussissait ? ?tablir une relation entre le marketing de l'alcool, sa consommation et ses dommages collat?raux, on pourrait en limiter la promotion, les publicit?s et les soldes.? Une portion de cette ?quation a ?t? ?lucid?e gr?ce aux travaux de plusieurs chercheurs. Leurs r?sultats montrent que le type de consommation d'alcool joue un r?le dans les dommages que cause l'alcool. ?Plus un pays a une consommation d'alcool ?lev?e, plus l'alcool co?te cher en dommages collat?raux?, explique Ingeborg Rossow, de l'Universit? d'Oslo, qui a publi? plusieurs ?tudes comparant les pays europ?ens. ?Mais cette relation est plus forte dans les pays o? on boit rarement mais beaucoup chaque fois.? En mati?re de consommation d'alcool, plusieurs chercheurs divisent les cultures entre ?s?ches? et ?mouill?es? (dry et wet). Les cultures s?ches, comme les ?tats-Unis ou la Scandinavie, boivent rarement mais beaucoup en une seule occasion. Les cultures mouill?es, comme la France ou l'Italie, boivent plus r?guli?rement, le plus souvent pendant les repas, mais rarement ? l'exc?s. Le Qu?bec est-il ?sec? ou ?mouill?? ? ?Entre les deux?, r?pond Evelyn Vingilis, ?pid?miologiste de l'Universit? Western Ontario qui a beaucoup compar? les provinces canadiennes et les ?tats am?ricains. ?J'ai fait une ?tude dans les ann?es 90 sur les ?tudiants ontariens, qu?b?cois et fran?ais, et c'?tait assez ?vident.? Un sondage r?alis? en 2004 aupr?s d'?tudiants montrait que les Qu?b?cois sont deux fois plus susceptibles que les Ontariens d'?tre des buveurs mod?r?s occasionnels, mais deux fois moins susceptibles d'?tre des buveurs excessifs. Alcool, sexe et pr?servatifs Il semble par ailleurs possible de moduler les effets de l'intoxication. ?D'une mani?re g?n?rale, l'alcool d?sinhibe?, explique Howard Moss, directeur de la recherche ? l'Institut national sur l'alcoolisme (NIAAA) ? Washington. ?Mais quand une personne devient intoxiqu?e, elle devient myope au plan cognitif. Elle se concentre sur la chose qui se trouve devant elle. La d?sinhibition n'est plus aussi simple. On peut penser qu'il est possible de moduler la d?sinhibition en changeant l'environnement o? l'alcool est consomm?, en diminuant les signaux agressifs dans les bars, par exemple.? Une ?tude ontarienne, publi?e en 2000 dans le Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, illustre les effets de la myopie alcoolique. Des psychologues de l'Universit? Queen's ont demand? ? des gens dans un bar d'imaginer ce qu'ils feraient s'ils rencontraient une tr?s belle personne et se retrouvaient en fin de soir?e en position d'avoir une relation sexuelle avec elle, mais n'avaient pas de pr?servatif. Les r?pondants ivres ?taient plus susceptibles d'avoir des relations non prot?g?es. Mais quand les chercheurs tamponnaient sur la main des cobayes, avant de leur d?crire la situation, la phrase ?le sida tue?, ceux qui ?taient ivres ?taient moins susceptibles d'avoir des relations sexuelles non prot?g?es. La violence de l'alcool n'est peut-?tre pas in?vitable. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/52b4670a/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:40:47 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:24 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Alcohol Bill needs to be serious, not a token gesture: Scotland Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328174038.03952728@ncf.ca> "...Although foetal alcohol harm cannot be cured or outgrown, there are promising treatments and it is potentially 100% preventable...." http://www.heraldscotland.com/life-style/real-lives/the-alcohol-bill-needs-to-be-serious-not-a-token-gesture-1.1012754 Herald Scotland Life & Style The Alcohol Bill needs to be serious, not a token gesture Jonathan Sher [] Published on 11 Mar 2010 Alcohol in Scottish society serves a variety of purposes: a ?social lubricant?; tool of seduction; and self-medication to deal with stress or pain. [Photo of alcohol bottles] Sher: Alcohol Bill introduced at the Scottish Parliament is not comprehensive enough Scots regularly turn to alcohol when celebrating, in need of consolation ? and when feeling upset, bored, joyous, lonely, proud or nervous. Alcohol misuse is a society-wide reality, not just a problem for an undisciplined, deeply disturbed few. The problems caused by young people?s consumption of alcohol are real, but it?s worth remembering that they often pale in comparison with the harm visited upon them from alcohol misuse by their parents and other adults. The Scottish Government is right to shine a powerful spotlight on our unhealthy relationship with alcohol and to focus on its enormous personal, social, economic and health costs. Nicola Sturgeon, has consistently and powerfully insisted that changing Scotland?s alcohol use and misuse requires a comprehensive package of significant actions. She?s right. And yet, the current Alcohol Bill introduced at the Scottish Parliament is not comprehensive enough. The need for a robust package is being buried under the Government?s priority ? and the opposition parties? (and media?s) fixation with minimum pricing. Of course price matters. The compelling research evidence is backed up by common sense and common experience. The fact that ?penny sweets? loomed large in my childhood made it easy for me to buy far too many of them, but the price did not cause me to want to overindulge. The story with alcohol in Scotland is much the same. There is widespread support among Children in Scotland?s membership for the Alcohol Bill, as well as agreement with the basic principles of: minimum pricing of alcohol. To work, this measure must be a serious one, not a token gesture. It is not sufficient to set a minimum price that creates the illusion of having ?done something?, but which still allows young people cheap and easy access to unhealthy levels of drinking. As a deterrent, the price of alcohol must make unhealthy consumption out of reach as a ?pocket money? expense for young people. However reducing consumption must also include measures that will reduce the problems driving Scots to drink in the first place. In Children in Scotland?s recent written testimony to the Scottish Parliament?s Health and Sport Committee, we highlighted three specific issues that cause drinking problems, not merely reinforce them. The first involves the lifelong impacts of foetal alcohol harm. Some adults who were exposed to alcohol while still in the womb were left with brain chemistry that makes them far more susceptible to alcohol misuse than non-affected adults. It also means they are more likely to engage in alcohol-fuelled negative behaviour. Although foetal alcohol harm cannot be cured or outgrown, there are promising treatments and it is potentially 100% preventable. The second cause of alcohol misuse involves deeper problems that ?drive people to drink?. Many adults and young people who engage in binge drinking or have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol are (mis)using it as a way of coping with underlying negative experiences and damage. It is extensively documented that such damage often first took place during childhood or adolescence ? linked, for example, to abuse, neglect, domestic violence or parental addiction, homelessness and poverty, bullying or mental health concerns. Reducing such damage will predictably decrease alcohol misuse. Our third recommendation about confronting the causes of alcohol misuse is to create healthy alternatives. Year after year, Scottish surveys of children and, especially, of teenagers reveal their major complaint is ?having nothing to do and nowhere safe and desirable to go? during their free time. Investing in a robust response to this will prove to be far less expensive and far more effective than the current expenditures to deal with alcohol-fuelled damage caused by these young people. Progress can be made through the Alcohol Bill. Scotland has already come a long way in dealing with the problem of ?drink driving?. Now is the time to overcome the problems driving us to drink unhealthily. Jonathan Sher is Director of Research, Policy and Programmes at Children in Scotland, whose written evidence to the Scottish Parliament is available at http://bit.ly/aBpjgE -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/da768720/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:41:39 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:27 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Mothers in Canada face cash shortage: report Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328174128.03ba6168@ncf.ca> "...report praises a national program to help high-risk pregnant women bear healthier babies ? but notes the funding hasn?t really budged in a decade..." "...The tight money parallels the experience of another program, the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Initiative, which has a modest annual budget of $3.3 million but has been spending only about two-thirds of the money each year, according to an internal evaluation released last spring...." http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/779724--mothers-in-canada-face-cash-shortage-report Toronto Star News Canada Mothers in Canada face cash shortage: report Published On Sun Mar 14 2010 Dean Beeby The Canadian Press OTTAWA?Federal cash for troubled pregnancies and newborns in Canada remains in short supply even as the Conservative government leads a global campaign to improve the health of mothers and children overseas. A newly released report praises a national program to help high-risk pregnant women bear healthier babies ? but notes the funding hasn?t really budged in a decade. The report echoes another analysis last year that found Ottawa consistently fails to spend the money it promises to fight fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which leaves newborns with a lifetime of afflictions. The latest study, an evaluation of the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program, examined some 330 projects that focus on women ? poor, isolated, abused or addicted ? who are likely to have unhealthy babies because of their own bad health or nutrition. The report, covering the five-year period ending in 2009, found that the projects have helped thousands of pregnant women to quit smoking and drinking, to eat better, to take vitamins and to breastfeed their newborns. The result was many fewer premature births, better birth weights and generally healthier babies, all at significant savings for health-care budgets in more than 2,000 communities. The reduction in the number of low-birth-weight infants alone saved $1.6 million in hospital costs, says the November 2009 study, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. But the authors also note that ?the last upward adjustment to (program) funding dates back to 1999,? and call on the government to ?address funding stability.? Key recommendations and comments, however, are censored in the released version. The budget for the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program was $25 million in 1999, and by 2009 had moved to just $27.2 million. After a decade of inflation, that represents an effective cut of $4 million, without even accounting for population growth. And spending in 2008-2009 was actually down by $200,000 from the previous year, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada, which runs the program. The tight money parallels the experience of another program, the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Initiative, which has a modest annual budget of $3.3 million but has been spending only about two-thirds of the money each year, according to an internal evaluation released last spring. At the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is leading a global campaign, as host of the G8 meetings near Huntsville, Ont., this June, to press world leaders for more money for pregnant women and children. ?There is pressing need for global action on maternal and child health,? Harper announced on Jan. 26. ?Far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple health-care solutions.? The March 4 federal budget affirmed Harper?s promise, though with no indication what Canada plans to spend on the initiative. A spokeswoman for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq noted that spending on the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program has increased by some $400,000 since 2006, when the Conservatives were first elected. ?These investments show that our government is fully committed to the health and well-being of Canadian children and families,? said Josee Bellemare. She also cited other government initiatives to help families, including the Universal Child Care Benefit and the Child Tax Credit. ?We are providing direct assistance to Canadian children and families and providing better access to care and services that are crucial to their well-being.? Harper?s global campaign on maternal and child health prompted Canada?s Inuit community to remind the prime minister that his own backyard also needs attention. ?Inuit, including Inuit infants and households with infants, experience far greater health challenges than other Canadians,? Pita Aatami, acting president of the Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, said the day after Harper?s announcement in Davos, Switzerland. ?These challenges extend to such basic issues as putting food on the table and create a range of aggravated problems for expectant mothers, newborns and infants.? Signy Gerrard of the Canadian Women?s Health Network, based in Winnipeg, said the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program is doing ?some great work? helping pregnant women who would not otherwise have support. And she cautioned that the resources cannot be allowed to lag behind the need. ?There can?t really be waiting lists for maternity care because babies aren?t going to wait.? Comments (15) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/70cda7b2/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:42:37 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:30 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Tory bill proposes publicizing names of violent young offenders Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328174219.03ba5d90@ncf.ca> "...The causes of youth violence are closely linked to fetal alcohol syndrome, violence in the home and poverty, said Frank Addario, past president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association..." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tory-bill-proposes-publicizing-names-of-violent-young-offenders/article1502831/ Globe & Mail National Tory bill proposes publicizing names of violent young offenders CAROLINE ALPHONSO With a report from Canadian Press Published on Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2010 12:00AM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Mar. 25, 2010 5:37AM EDT The Conservative government is proposing changes for teenagers convicted of serious crimes that could result in their names being publicized and evidence from previous encounters with the law used in sentencing. Overhauling the Youth Criminal Justice Act had been a cornerstone of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's re-election platform, and yesterday his government tabled a bill that follows through on that promise, putting a greater emphasis on protecting the public rather than rehabilitating young offenders. In effect, teenagers as young as 14 convicted of violent offences could be sentenced as adults and their identities no longer shielded. The proposed changes would also permit sentencing judges to take into account evidence of previous "extrajudicial sanctions" that did not result in criminal convictions, but rather community-based sanctions. The government also proposes toughening up the act by allowing the courts to charge and sentence young people when they engage in irresponsible behaviour, such as a car chase that endangers the public but doesn't cause injuries. The amendments are dubbed S?bastien's Law in memory of S?bastien Lacasse, a 19-year-old Quebecker who was killed by a group of youths after making racially charged comments about his ex-girlfriend's new beau at a house party in 2004. A 17-year-old pleaded guilty and was sentenced as an adult. "This legislation will simplify the rules to keep these offenders off the streets when necessary to protect society," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told reporters yesterday. But defence lawyers and legal experts argue that harsher sentences will not reduce juvenile crimes, and allowing the courts to identify young offenders, even when they're not convicted as adults, will prevent them from returning as productive members of society. The bill states that a youth judge would have to consider whether the "young person poses a significant risk of committing another violent offence and the lifting of the ban is necessary to protect the public against that risk." "This is an example of pandering to public misperceptions about youth crime," said Nicholas Bala, a youth-justice expert at Queen's University. He said that the proposed changes are being tabled as youth crime is on the decline in Canada. Further, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in May, 2008 that adolescents and adults should generally be treated differently. The causes of youth violence are closely linked to fetal alcohol syndrome, violence in the home and poverty, said Frank Addario, past president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, adding that research does not suggest that severe punishment of young people will prevent them from embarking on a life of recidivism. "There is an unshakeable belief among the law and order crowd that young people should be treated more like adults," he said. "There is, however, a long standing rule in Canadian law that young people are fundamentally different than adults, that they experience the world differently, that their level of maturity changes their level of culpability, and that it would be a mistake to apply the same approaches." He described the Harper government's planned changes as an "American-style approach to criminal justice" where the young are expected to have the same level or moral culpability as an adult. "This can be seen as another attempt to simplify what's really a complex social issue in order to condense it into a digestible election issue," he said. "To treat the criminal justice system as if it's a solution for wider social problems, which the government has the tools to solve, is a bit of a sham." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/4de95768/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:43:24 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:33 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Young offenders get Ottawa's spin Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328174315.03ba5b00@ncf.ca> "...If the government really wants to reduce youth crime, it needs to stop telling Canadians this can be done through the judicial system and start focusing on long-term social investments that deal with the underlying causes, ranging from poverty and broken homes to fetal alcohol syndrome and addictions...." http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/781983--young-offenders-get-ottawa-s-spin Toronto Star Opinion Editorials Young offenders get Ottawa's spin Published On Sat Mar 20 2010 Once again, the Conservative government is warning Canadians that our laws are not strong enough to "protect society." This time, it is young offenders, as young as 14, who apparently pose a threat. Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's solution is "S?bastien's law." Tabled this week, its purpose is to treat more youth as adults, put them behind bars for longer periods, and shame them by publicly identifying them. This will serve to "give Canadians greater confidence that violent and repeat young offenders will be held accountable," says Nicholson. As with the dozen other tough-on-crime bills proposed by the Conservatives, there is a lot more spin than substance involved here, regarding both the dangers Canadians face and the effectiveness of the government's proposed solutions. For starters, crime rates are dropping in Canada. There is no youth crime wave underway to justify a crackdown. Moreover, under the existing Youth Criminal Justice Act, judges already have the leeway to impose adult sentences on offenders as young as 14 if they are convicted of serious violent offences. Indeed, the bill is named after S?bastien Lacasse, a 19-year-old Quebecer whose 17-year-old killer was sentenced as an adult. Under the existing law, the courts may also opt to lift the customary bans protecting the identity of offenders who receive youth sentences. Therefore, introducing a law that "requires the court to consider" these measures and others may amount to very little. What S?bastien's Law would do, though, is change the tone of our youth criminal justice system from rehabilitation and reintegration to punishment and public shaming. This is particularly troubling given the likelihood that the bill will do nothing to reduce crime but may, in fact, turn more juvenile offenders into hardened criminals and cost taxpayers plenty to keep them locked up. The government says it will "make protection of society a primary goal of the legislation." But legal experts argue compellingly that this can't be done by tinkering with our criminal justice system. Harsher sentences, particularly for impulsive and immature young people, do not make offenders think twice about committing crimes, says criminologist and youth-justice expert Nicholas Bala. Contrary to the government's assertions, this view is supported by evidence both here and in the United States, the poster child for tough-on-crime laws that have cost taxpayers billions without actually helping to reduce crime. If the government really wants to reduce youth crime, it needs to stop telling Canadians this can be done through the judicial system and start focusing on long-term social investments that deal with the underlying causes, ranging from poverty and broken homes to fetal alcohol syndrome and addictions. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/283b6323/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 18:44:13 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 17:42:36 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Popping a pill to cure what ales you Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328174404.03ba5728@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:28:10 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:20 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Where the wild things are: Underrated author Jim Harrison: Book review Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328222802.03f83570@ncf.ca> [Do people in Toronto know Jim Harrison? He must have some personal experience with FASD?]ER Here is a review of a book that mentions FASD "...Brown Dog Redux revives Harrison?s recurring salacious Chippewa, newly relocated to Toronto while on the run from authorities in an effort to protect his stepdaughter, born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, from being placed in a home for disabled youth in Michigan..." www.canada.com 21 Mar 2010 Edmonton Journal Review by JOS? TEODORO Jos? Teodoro is a former Edmonton play wright now based in Toronto. Where the wild things are Underrated author Jim Harrison delivers a touchingly optimistic collection of novellas The Farmer?s Daughter Jim Harrison Anansi 308 pp.; $29.95 [Photo] SUPPLIED, FILE Jim Harrison has reached the ripe old age of 73, but his prose contains not one crotchety or defeatist phrase. With their reveries of wide-open spaces, fishing, hunting and fevered sexual desire; their casts of horses, dogs, horny native Americans and well-read werewolves, the three novellas collected in Jim Harrison?s The Farmer?s Daughter might be regarded as an homage to wild things, wild places, and the animal nature still coursing through the blood of each of us. It?s a testament to Harrison?s spirit and durability that this homage never collapses into eulogy. Harrison?s characters inhabit modern landscapes, traversing varied points throughout North America in narratives than span the 1980s to the present. Yet however often they or their author might pause to lament the dwindling of the natural world, the sterility of urban development, or the domestication of our social habits, we?re never left with the sense that all is lost. Harrison is 73 now ? the same age of the rickety old rancher who spends his final days admiring the budding womanhood of his teenage neighbour in this book?s titular tale ? but there isn?t a crotchety or defeatist phrase in all of Harrison?s prose. ?She was born peculiar, or so she thought. Her parents had put some ice in her soul, not a rare thing, and when things went well the ice seemed to melt a bit, and went things went poorly the ice enlarged. Her name was Sarah Anitra Holcomb.? The tough yet sensitive protagonist of the title story here is transplanted at an early age from Ohio to Montana, where she witnesses a great deal of sweat, anxiety and brutality. Sarah sees a dog decapitate an old coyote. She sees a grizzly slay an elk fawn. As she hits puberty, she finds herself the target of much attention from boys and men and there comes a time when this attention switches over to violation. Somewhat awkwardly, The Farmer?s Daughter switches from coming-ofage to a revenge tale, yet it never loses its fundamental tenderness or pattern of eloquent observations on ?the overripe coppery smell? of a freshly slaughtered beast?s innards, or the popularity of Valium among rural wives. Brown Dog Redux revives Harrison?s recurring salacious Chippewa, newly relocated to Toronto while on the run from authorities in an effort to protect his stepdaughter, born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, from being placed in a home for disabled youth in Michigan. The pair hitch a ride on the tour bus of an Indian rock band called Thunderskins and eventually find their way back stateside, with B.D., never unduly discriminate with his sexual partners, managing to get plenty of action along the way despite an onslaught of ?Satanic? kidney stones. There?s a moment when an ally of B.D. provides a pretty hilarious list of our hero?s history of offences. ?First you trade in illegal shipwreck artifacts, then you try to sell a frozen body, then you violently raid an archeological site ? Ol? B.D. certainly gets around and suffers no shortage of bawdy adventures. His exploits covered herein make for many laughs and a few moments of poetry, though this is ultimately the least memorable of the book?s tales. In The Games of Night, Harrison invigorates his interest in our innate carnal impulses through the renovation of lycanthrope mythology. Our narrator is afflicted with the werewolf virus while still a boy, the bite of a Mexican hummingbird condemning him to a life spent largely in isolation, preparing himself for the transfiguration that arrives with each full moon. Yet The Games of Night is not a horror story. ?I had the advantage of being a permanent stranger on Earth,? declares our narrator, who recognizes the uniqueness of his perspective, how ?culture struggles to make us think we aren?t what we are,? and finds paths toward comfort and the satisfaction of his considerable lusts. Like so many Harrison heroes, he?s at once lupine and literate. He reads a lot of Ovid. But in the end he really just wants a girlfriend. So this werewolf story is fascinating and surprising, savage and sweet, making it arguably the finest and most emblematic of these new tales from one of America?s most underrated authors. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/f5a1b722/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:29:13 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:32 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Foetal alcohol syndrome has been ignored for too long: U.K. Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328222859.03f83198@ncf.ca> http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/23/foetal-alcohol-syndrome-teachers The Guardian Education - Schools Foetal alcohol syndrome has been ignored for too long New guidelines will help teachers meet the needs of children with foetal alcohol syndrome Denis Campbell The Guardian, Tuesday 23 March 2010 [Photo] Bethan Morris, who has foetal alcohol syndrome, with her stepmother Briony. Photograph: Sam Frost School is an ordeal for Bethan Morris. "Sometimes I understand things and can do them with the rest of the class, but sometimes I don't," says the 15-year-old. "I can learn something in the morning but have forgotten it by the afternoon. That happens with all subjects." Bethan also gets distracted very easily in the middle of classes, and has to ask the teacher or pupil beside her to go back over things. Bethan has trouble learning because she has moderate foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), in which a mother-to-be's drinking during pregnancy impairs her baby's brain function. About one in 100 children in the UK has some form of the condition which, like autism, is measured on a spectrum of harm from mild to serious. She attends a mainstream secondary school in Salisbury, Wiltshire where she is studying for a BTec in travel and tourism and another in PE, four GCSEs and a diploma in ICT. Many children with FAS are not diagnosed for years, and Bethan was not told until she was 11. Bethan attends her school's homework club and extra support lessons in the afternoon, and is helped by her stepmother, Briony. Despite that, she admits: "My learning has fallen behind because of the FAS. It has affected me quite a lot, especially because I have trouble remembering things I've learned. So I do have many frustrations at school." Such pupils clearly represent a major challenge for schools and teachers. However, it is a challenge they are not geared up to respond to properly, according to new research by Professor Barry Carpenter, an expert in the education of children with complex needs. "Many UK school settings will not be aware that they have children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in their pupil population," says Carpenter. "Classroom accommodation, adaptation and amelioration are required to engage children with FASD as an effective learner. As yet, UK teachers are ill-equipped to undertake this process." He adds: "There has been no systematic record on the educational needs of children with FASD or on best educational strategies for effective teaching and learning, [and] there is currently no direct guidance from any government agency in the UK to teachers on how to educate children with FASD. That's a surprise as this is a disability that is in the same league, prevalence-wise, as autistic spectrum disorder. It's incredible that we have ignored this for so long." He says that such children are "pedagogically bereft". Teachers get no special training. "Teachers may be kind, talented and committed," says Carpenter, "but if they haven't had appropriate training, how can they achieve quality outcomes for that child?" The only guidance available is produced by three organisations that have been set up by parents of children with FASD: NOFAS-UK, the FASD Trust and FASAwareUK. But it needs to be refined and embedded in the curriculum, he says. The result, as he told a conference on FASD and education last week at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, "is a multiple educational jeopardy around these children, which means that the current style and structure of many classrooms is not conducive to engaging them as effective learners. Many of their behavioural traits militate against sustained learning with cumulative gains." Pupils with FASD have particular trouble with mathematical and numerical concepts because a key part of their brain called the parietal lobe, which controls numeracy and computational skills, has been affected. "This means that children with FASD are difficult to accommodate within any key stage of the English national curriculum." NOFAS-UK's director, Susan Fleisher, an ex-teacher, recalls the difficulties faced by her own adopted daughter Addie ? who has full FAS ? when she was at school. "She was diagnosed at eight because she was delayed in school and kept missing her milestones... Most FASD children look normal and generally have a good long-term memory but a bad short-term memory so can't remember instructions, for example," says Fleisher. That can lead to teachers getting exasperated with pupils not being able to repeat a task they learned just an hour before. That trait explains why just 10%-18% of FASD children go on to get a job, she adds. Carpenter contrasts the UK's lack of thought-through provision with Canada where, he says, teachers get specific training, there are special classes in mainstream schools for FASD children, and plenty of educational resources for both children and teachers. NOFAS-UK runs courses for teachers but is only a small charity. At the moment, says Carpenter, "there are some good localised pockets of good practice, but no more than that. Some are trying really hard, from their own intuition. But they are doing it without guidance. Is that fair? I say no." Happily, that should change soon. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, where Carpenter is associate director (special educational needs), is undertaking research for the Training and Development Agency for Schools into how to best educate FASD children. TDA spokesman Giles Field says the aims are "to raise awareness of FASD among the education workforce; to enable educators to support the learning needs of children affected and construct personalised learning pathways that are relevant and pertinent to their learning profile; [and] to promote an appreciation of families as co-educators of children with FASD". Draft national guidelines for teachers should be ready by the end of the year. ? NOFAS-UK's helpline is 08700 333 700. www.nofas-uk.org Comments are now closed for this entry Conserned 23 Mar 2010, 10:43AM We have two Chidren with FASD now in their early 20's one diagnosed at age 13 , due to late interventions, has continuing social and attatchment problems will need help and support for life. WHERE AS the other child diagnosed at age 4 month, after being Miss diagnosed in the 1st instance, has attained Educational success., However puting this in the workplace is another Matter we can but hope, not being educated in mainsteam school, having too attend a children's centre because of the lake of understanding of FASD within the teaching profession did not help. For Support, Teaching, and research of FASD see www.Fasaware.co.UK JTait 23 Mar 2010, 10:45AM Well done NOFAS for raising awareness of this issue. As mother of a 10 year old with FASD every day is a struggle - he is gorgeous, sensitive and bright, but routines that his peers learn naturally have to be relearnt every day (when to get up, dress yourself, eat, get in the car and so on). Fortunately his school is very understanding and supportive - he has one-to-one peer support from a group of friends to navigate him through the school day, and the school understand that arrival time might be and often is very variable as he needs to learn to get himself awake and ready, even if this takes a couple of hours. He is miles off ever getting a statement of educational needs as he somehow keeps up educationally in class, even when missing chunks of school, but it is clear that he needs a lot of support to survive in the school environment. The thought of secondary school is pretty scary as there is little understanding of bright, articulate children who look almost 'normal' but who don't react as expected. I know how frustrating he can be a parent as he is often disengaged and appears not to hear what you say, can't or won't follow instructions, and is very impulsive with little sense of danger. Not an easy combination for a teacher to deal with in class. FASD children are often small and can be bullied, so awareness and support from teachers if vital. it amazes me how few people seem aware of FASD despite its frequency in the general population. When I see young pregnant women drinking I long to say, 'Stop, don't you know what this could do to your child and how it could affect your lives'? They get such mixed messages in the media and some at least would probably drink less or not at all if properly aware of the risks to their child. More education around FASD for teachers and everyone else can't come too soon. Rachelthedigger 25 Mar 2010, 3:15PM I can see where this is a really thorny problem - providing the support for the children is only half of it, you then have to deal with the reluctance of the parents to ask for it, because they're so embarrassed to have to explain, and a potential judgemental attitude on the part of the authorities when they have explained. Can you imagine having to go to your school governors or LEA and say words to the effect of 'Please make special provisions for my child, who is disabled through my own fault because I behaved irresponsibly when pregnant'? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/680f2656/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:38:11 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:38 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Alcohol in small amounts 'won't damage unborn baby': Ireland Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328223803.0409f330@ncf.ca> "...a hospital in London had introduced alcohol tests for pregnant women on a voluntary basis. The Homerton Hospital has distributed the kits, which can detect alcohol for up to two weeks after consumption, to women as part of what is termed a 'lifestyle, alcohol assessment'..." http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2010/0323/1224266870451.html Irish Times Dublin, Ireland Society - Health - News The Irish Times - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Alcohol in small amounts 'won't damage unborn baby' RONAN McGREEVY Obstetrician says 'common sense has gone out the window' in relation to advice pregnant women receive ONE OF Ireland's best known obstetrician/gynaecologists has said there is no evidence to suggest that women who drink small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy harm their babies. Dr Peter Boylan, the former master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin, said there was even international evidence to suggest that drinking a glass of wine a day during pregnancy might be beneficial in the long term and does no harm. Dr Boylan's advice is contrary to that of the chief medical officer who concluded three years ago that there was "no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy" and that there was a substantial risk from binge drinking which could lead to Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). However, Dr Boylan, the author of the Irish Pregnancy Book , said such advice could be taken with a "pinch of salt". "They are making statements that are not backed up by scientific evidence. It is undoubtedly true that heavy alcohol intake can potentially be extremely damaging to the developing embryo and foetus," he said. "But it is wrong to extrapolate from that that a small amount of alcohol is bad. A large dose of radiation can cause cancer of the blood, but we also know that the exposure to a small amount of radiation, such as through an X-ray, is not harmful. "Just because something is harmful in a big dose does not mean it is harmful in small doses." Dr Boylan added that "common sense had gone out the window" in relation to a lot of advice that pregnant women receive. "Pregnant women are subject to an awful lot of advice and a lot of it is complete and utter nonsense. If pregnant women live a reasonably sensible life, they will not cause any harm." Alcohol Action Ireland's acting director, Cliona Murphy, said Dr Boylan's advice would add to the confusion that women already experience about alcohol. "From our perspective the Government advice is quite clear, but our experience is that pregnant women often get conflicting advice from their doctors in this regard. There is no safe known limit for alcohol during pregnancy," she said. "I'm at a loss to understand the basis on which he has given that advice. The advice in the UK is that children under the age of 15 should not drink because their brains are still developing and the same goes for the brain of a child in the womb." The debate about pregnant women drinking alcohol took a new twist when it was revealed that a hospital in London had introduced alcohol tests for pregnant women on a voluntary basis. The Homerton Hospital has distributed the kits, which can detect alcohol for up to two weeks after consumption, to women as part of what is termed a "lifestyle, alcohol assessment". -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/a6976618/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:38:56 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:49 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Altering a mindset; Native affairs: New Brunswick Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328223846.03f652e0@ncf.ca> "...For decades, the challenges many First Nation communities face have been widely reported - deep poverty, housing shortages, alcoholism, drug use and instances of fetal alcohol syndrome, which can be at least five times higher than Canada's national average...." Altering a mindset; Native affairs: Young chief sees mortgaged homes, jobs, tax revenues as keys to development Jennifer Pritchett. Telegraph-Journal. Saint John, N.B.: Mar 24, 2010. pg. A.1 A picturesque waterside community located a 20-minute drive from downtown Newcastle at the convergence of the Little Southwest and the Northwest Miramichi rivers, New Brunswick's oldest First Nations settlement is a village in transition. But the type of change happening here is hard to see - it doesn't involve the construction of new buildings or roads. It involves a shift in mindset. Leading the charge with this new way of thinking is a young Mi'kmaq chief who passionately believes that the recipe for First Nations people to advance is to push away from a long-standing reliance on funding from Ottawa in favour of locally driven economic development that includes a regime for property and sales taxes. "You have to generate revenue where you're going to make strategic investments, but what's most critical is a transformation of the people that not everything they get should come for free," says Metepenagiag Chief Noah Augustine, who has been driving the change since he was elected in 2004. He points to the fact that on most reserves, band members live in homes for which they never pay rent or have the responsibility of paying a mortgage. With money from the federal government, the band builds and mortgages each home in the community. Residents who move into Metepenagiag's newest neighbourhood, where the houses have hardwood floors, landscaping and other amenities not found in other reserve houses, will be required to pay a portion of the home's mortgage. "People will aspire to live in those types of conditions "[broken bar] this is a critical move in terms of changing the mentality of the community," Augustine says. "I need people to say, 'Wow, I want to live there. How do I do that?' Well, you can't do that unless you're paying a mortgage and you can't pay a mortgage unless you've got a full-time job." Augustine, 39, would like to see more people take control of their own destiny, holding down a full-time job, paying for their homes and maybe eventually paying property tax. Without a concept of budgeting or the need to save for the future, most people in this community don't have a savings account. Many live month-to-month, from welfare cheque to welfare cheque. An attitude of dependence in many First Nation communities, Augustine says, has deepened many problems, including high unemployment, low educational levels and other social ills. For decades, the challenges many First Nation communities face have been widely reported - deep poverty, housing shortages, alcoholism, drug use and instances of fetal alcohol syndrome, which can be at least five times higher than Canada's national average. Augustine, who speaks with hope about the future of aboriginal communities in New Brunswick, believes that independence is the only way for First Nations people to pull themselves out of the grips of those problems. To that end, he advocates for a change in attitude in Metepenagiag. "It's more of an ideology than what you see on the ground today," he says. Metepenagiag, formerly known as Red Bank for the colour of the soil around the banks of the rivers here, is home to two national historic sites - the Augustine Mound Mi'kmaq burial ground and the Oxbow site, where artifacts were found in the 1980s that dated the community back 3,000 years. Metepenagiag also has the distinction of having the largest land base of any First Nation band in Atlantic Canada, with roughly 3,900 hectares spread over a handful of separate locations. The Metepenagiag council is also in the process of negotiating another land claim settlement with Ottawa that will see it acquire as much as 1,000 additional hectares. The band owns the Mi'kmaq Heritage Park, a little-known New Brunswick gem that boasts an impressively large museum with displays that detail the rich history of the Mi'kmaq people, as well as trails and pow wow grounds. During the summer months, local river guides take tourists down the Little Southwest branch of the Miramichi River in a birchbark canoe. Next door to the heritage park is the band-owned Metepenagiag Adventure Lodge, a log hotel and conference facility that features a large stone fireplace and cozy rooms with hardwood floors and wood walls. It overlooks the scenic Little Southwest. With big plans for future economic development, the band has partnered with Europlasma, Caterpillar and Sunbay Energy to build a $70-million gasification plant that will convert municipal garbage into electricity. That project, to be built on the old Nelson-Miramichi groundwood mill site, is expected to be in operation by the spring of 2012. The band is also in the process of building a $3.5-million gaming and bingo facility in nearby Douglastown that will be opening next fall. The idea, Augustine says, is to get community members working at these new businesses and to generate more revenue for the band. "These are not jobs like on the reserve, where the common criticism you get is, 'Oh well, someone is not showing up for work,'" he says. The enthusiastic chief says work absenteeism is often overlooked on the reserve because it's sometimes difficult for politicians to "crack down" on the problem. "Whereas if we had a business operation in say, Miramichi, well if you miss a day of work, don't come crying to the chief and council," Augustine says. He says a critical part of the economic development model his community is working on is a tax regime, which involves both property tax and income from an existing provincial sales tax agreement with the province. "We're right now the only First Nation in New Brunswick that has jurisdiction over property tax," he says. This means that the Metepenagiag band can charge property tax to any company for the use of First Nation land, including NB Power and telephone companies that run lines through the community. This was a right the band negotiated with Ottawa. "We're taxing them for all of those light poles going through our community, " Augustine says. This right to charge property tax is integral to the band's plan to increase revenue from the lease of land it acquires. The band is acquiring land through land claim settlements and plans to lease that land to businesses. Through this means, the band will generate revenue through lease agreements and property tax. Acquiring land in more commercial areas will be essential to building an economy for Metepenagiag because the reserve itself it located off the beaten track and isn't in a good position to attract businesses. Three years ago, Augustine partnered with well-known New Brunswick businessman and former MP Bud Bird to promote communication and partnership between First Nations people and the business community across the province. They formed the First Nations and Business Liaison Group of New Brunswick Inc. and all 15 of the province's aboriginal communities have bought into the concept. "The idea is to engage First Nations to secure employment and for enterprise creation between the private-sector and First Nations," says Bird. The chiefs and a collection of New Brunswick businesspeople have met a handful of times to build relationships between First Nations and the business community. "We're all getting to know one another better," Bird says. He says the common interest between the business community and the First Nations is commerce and he feels confident that partnerships will develop. Augustine says "developing and participating in an economy" is key to all native communities. "I believe that a taxation base is required for First Nations to engage the economy," he says. "There's no economy out there that's been developed without a tax base from the local governments. So in terms of government, we have to establish that tax base." For bands such as Metepenagiag that aren't situated in or near urban areas, the government has given them the opportunity to buy land in more economically viable areas. Through this means, Metepenagiag has been able to acquire land in Moncton and in Miramichi in areas where they can lease the land to businesses. "Any new lands that we buy in New Brunswick, we're going to have converted to Indian reserve land and once they're converted to Indian reserve land, then the tax regime we have in place takes effect," Augustine says. As well, the band will generate revenue from these businesses through a provincial sales tax agreement that First Nations communities in New Brunswick have negotiated with the province. This agreement sees the province return 95 per cent of the provincial portion of the HST collected by businesses on reserve land to the band administration. Though band members are currently exempt from paying property tax for on- reserve land, that may change. "The individuals aren't property taxed, but it doesn't mean that in the future, we may not implement that," says Augustine. Before that happens, he says, there has to be a transformation in mindset among some band members that a tax base is critical to economic development. The problem, he says, is that the federal government doesn't provide enough funding to allow bands to meet their programming needs for health care, social assistance, education and training. While the federal government has provided stimulus funding when the economy stalled, Augustine says First Nation communities receive zero dollars to invest in projects that would boost the economy. And so, he says, native communities have to take the issue into their own hands. Jennifer Pritchett is a provincial reporter for the Telegraph-Journal. She can be reached at pritchett.jennifer@telegraphjournal.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/04b85c33/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:39:42 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:53 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] 4 Things for your bottom line What this means for you: Manitoba Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328223934.040a1950@ncf.ca> "...What the government is doing: It's aiming new money on addiction treatment and the reduction of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder..." 4 Things for your bottom line What this means for you Anonymous. Winnipeg Free Press. Winnipeg, Man.: Mar 24, 2010. pg. A.8 What the government [of Manitoba] is doing: It won't raise the personal income tax rate or sales tax What it means to you: You'll keep money in your pocket, continuing a line of tax savings and NDP boasting that dates back 11 years. For a single person earning $40,000, that means another year of $665 in savings compared with what you were paying in 1999. For a family of four whose two-earner income adds up to $100,000, the tax savings will be $1,984 compared with their 1999 provincial tax bill. On the other hand, if you're in big business, the province's planned reduction of the corporation income tax rate to 11 per cent will only be implemented when the economy improves. What the government is doing: Trying to keep a hold on drug prices What it means to you: The province will limit increases to pharmacare to the rate of inflation and 100 per cent of all eligible drug costs above deductibles will remain covered. What the government is doing: The province will create hundreds of new child-care spaces and create a pension for child-care workers What it means to you: The increased ability for a two-parent family to both work while the kids are being looked after by qualified providers, who are staying in the field because they have a pension benefit. It means more stability at home and in the child-care field. What the government is doing: It's aiming new money on addiction treatment and the reduction of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder What it means to you: Perhaps nothing directly. But it means a ton to people in law enforcement and in health care. A lot of the incidents that occur in Manitoba are linked to alcohol abuse, drug use and young people committing crimes who are diagnosed with FASD. Treatment for the most part has been a jail sentence, which does nothing to address or prevent drug use and drinking during pregnancy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/aecfd2ad/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:40:38 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:42:57 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Saskatchewan budget highlights Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328224029.03f1e380@ncf.ca> "...$10.6 million to continue health's early childhood development funding for mental health and addictions services to pre-and post-natal families and initiatives to reduce infant mortality and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. ...... $186.5 million to support individuals with intellectual disabilities...." www.canada.com 25 Mar 2010 The StarPhoenix Budget Highlights The government of Saskatchewan tabled a balanced budget, with the general revenue fund surplus forecast to be $20 million. Government expense levels are reduced by 1.2 per cent. Government debt will not rise. Government public debt forecast remains unchanged at $4.15 billion at March 31,2011. The growth and financial security fund is projected to have a year-end balance of $510.8 million. Infrastructure and dedicated spending The 2010-11 infrastructure budget is $632 million, bringing total capital investment to nearly $3 billion in three years. $177 million for municipal infrastructure, an increase of nearly 30 per cent. $63 million to continue construction on Highway 11 twinning, the Lewvan interchange and west bypass in Regina and the Yorkton truck bypass. $161.6 million for about 470 kilometres of highway construction for the rural highway strategy and work on projects that, when completed, will see 500 kilometres of highway resurfaced. $16 million in grants to support agricultural research and development. $3 million provided by Crown Investments Corp. for First Nations' economic development initiatives. $16.6 million for the Saskatchewan Research Council to continue its current research and development projects. $391.2 million for universities, federated and affiliated colleges, including increases of $16.3 million to help minimize tuition hikes. $7.9 million to post-secondary institutions for the continuation of health-care training seats. More than $100 million maintained in funding for labour force development programs. $3.5 million to continue the physician recruitment strategy and agency. $6.6 million for physician training seat expansion; postgraduate and international residency seats Program delivery $123-million increase, or five per cent, to regional health authorities to provide base funding of $2.6 billion for the delivery of health services. $10.5 million to begin the process of reducing surgical wait lists and wait times. $7 million for a Patient-First initiative fund, to support the health system in adopting a patient-and family-centred care approach. $109.3 million, a $10-million increase or 10.1 per cent, to Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (funding for drugs and medical supplies, and operating costs). $2.6 million in new funding to address increased cardiac care volumes including expansion of electrophysiology services in the province. $2.5 million in new funding to enhance autism services. $3.8 million increase for the Irene and Leslie Dube Centre for Mental Health. $5.6 million to cover 127,000 optometric services for children. $10.6 million to continue health's early childhood development funding for mental health and addictions services to pre-and post-natal families and initiatives to reduce infant mortality and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. $3.6 million for a five per cent increase in kidney disease/hemodialysis volumes. $186.5 million to support individuals with intellectual disabilities. $321.3 million in other income assistance programs, including an increase of $29.3 million to support program utilization. $3.2 million increase to community-based organizations for a total of $327 million in funding. $976.5 million for the operating grant for education, representing a $33-million increase to total school division operating funding including property taxes. $58 million in early learning and child-care supports for 11,635 licensed child-care spaces. $182.3 million for child and family services, including $24.5 million for caseload increases, enhanced programming and to develop 34 new child welfare spaces. 30 additional police officers to further the commitment to provide 120 new positions over four years. $167.4 million to maintain funding for municipal revenue sharing. $234.1 million to fully fund the province's 40 per cent share of farm income stabilization program payments (AgriStability, Agrivest and crop insurance premiums) based on current forecasts. $3 million to maintain funding for the consultation participation fund, supporting the government's policy regarding duty to consult. $700,000 increase in municipal policing grants for continued support of specialized officers, including those who deal with suppression of gang-related activity and exploitation of children through the Internet. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/c79dd4c4/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:46:08 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 22:54:01 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] FASD association quits, cites onerous demands: Manitoba Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328141206.03cfaa40@ncf.ca> [This is a sad situation - a group with a long history of providing supports & services] http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fasd-association-quits-cites-onerous-demands-89097937.html Winnipeg Free Press News - Local FASD association quits, cites onerous demands By: Carol Sanders 25/03/2010 1:00 AM | Fed up with "onerous" orders from the province, a support group that helps families coping with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder has called it quits. The board of the decade-old Fetal Alcohol Family Association of Manitoba decided last week to cease operations. "The organization had been struggling for sometime," said Dale Kendel, a director and one of the association's founders. "On March 17, we reached the final decision we didn't have the time and the energy to carry on with all the demands," said Kendel. The association with charitable status ran support groups and workshops for families. It published and distributed more than 6,000 booklets for FASD families and helped launch a number of programs for older kids and adults living with FASD. "This was a unique type of support," Kendel said, adding more than half of the volunteer board was made up of parents. Kendel said a lack of funding wasn't the issue -- the agency received about $45,000 from the province and about $42,000 from United Way. He said the province ordered the association to have an outside consultant review their operations, and that's when the downfall began. "There were 23 recommendations to implement, and all 23 were too onerous," said Kendel. The organization implemented six of the changes soon after they received the consultant's report in November, but the province wanted all the recommendations addressed, he said. "It kept escalating. No matter what we did as an organization, there was something next." The manager of FASD programs for the province's Healthy Child initiative said they've been working with the association for years. "We wanted to work with them," said Holly Gammon. She said the association needed to broaden its services, improve access to resources and build a network of supports and education for families. Healthy Child asked the association for a plan outlining when and how the consultant's recommendations would be addressed. "We recognize their organization was unique in it gives voice to caregivers themselves. We wanted to provide them with some options to continue to have voice as caregivers," she said. Families seeking FASD services can call FASD Information Manitoba toll free at 1-866-877-0050. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Comments: 18 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/a55eb81d/attachment.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:53:03 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 23:00:15 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Brainstorming: Canada Launches Landmark National Study on =?iso-8859-1?q?Children=92s?= Brain Development Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328225107.03f5e630@ncf.ca> [This is very exciting! Dr. James Reynolds of Queen's University spoke to our FASD Group of Ottawa last month about his research & involvement in NeurodevNet] "...FASD 'represents a public health problem of epidemic proportions,' says NeurodevNet...." www.canada.com 26 Mar 2010 National Post Brainstorming: Canada Launches Landmark National Study on Children?s Brain Development If there?s a motto for NeurodevNet, a landmark Canadian effort in researching brain development, it?s this quote from Frederick Douglass, which appears on the project?s website: ?It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.? NeurodevNet (www.neurodevnet.ca), which launched in December 2009, is the first Canada-wide initiative dedicated to studying children?s brain development from both basic and clinical perspectives.the initial focus is on three conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and Cerebral Palsy (CP). The initiative will receive $19.6 million in funding over five years from the Networks of Centres of Excellence of Canada. NeurodevNet is hosted by the University of British Columbia, and involves a network of experts in clinical assessment and treatment, genetics, epigenetics, imaging, model organisms, knowledge translation, informatics, and neuroethics; along with key partners in community, industry, and government. About 75 researchers are currently involved in NeurodevNet, which the network hopes to double in four to five years. To accelerate the understanding of the causes of neurological deficits, researchers aim to answer three critical questions. One, how do we define ?normal? human brain development? Two, how do we detect abnormalities in that development? Three, how do we fix impaired brains? The goal here isn?t just to increase research in each of ASD, FASD and CP, but to share learning of common interest, says Dr. Daniel Goldowitz, scientific director for NeurodevNet. ?There?s a huge amount of interplay between our understanding of each of these and how the brain develops,? says Dr. Goldowitz, who is senior scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, and Canada research Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics, University of British Columbia. Quality of life issue About 75 researchers are involved in NeurodevNet, which Dr. Goldowitz hopes will double in four to five years. the ability to better understand and treat brain disorders in childhood is critical given the enormous and prolonged impact of these conditions. Brain disorders affect all aspects of life ? learning, communication, socialization, and mobility. An inability to develop normal functioning in any one of these aspects, let alone several, can significantly reduce quality of life, and have enormous implications for the individual, for families, and for socio-economic costs. ?Burden of illness? calculations commonly look at years of life lost, rather than at the broader impact ? how is quality of life affected through years lived with a disability? NeurodevNet reports that while neurologic and psychiatric disorders comprise 1.4 percent of deaths, they account for a whopping 28 percent of all years of life lived with a disability. According to Neuroscience Canada, approximately 10 million Canadians will be afflicted, at some point, by a disease, disorder or injury of the brain, spinal cord or nervous system. With the enormous prevalence, and even with all of the advances in neuroscience, there?s still much that researchers don?t know about brain disorders. Earlier and better treatment Through NeurodevNet, researchers hope to identify new genes involved in brain development and function, improve diagnosis, and create earlier and better treatments for brain disorders. Another goal is to train the next generation of researchers in paediatric brain development. The three disorders at the heart of NeurodevNet take a huge toll. one in about 150 children have ASD, which encompasses a group of disorders that share characteristics such as impairments in socialization and communication. one U.S. study that put the costs associated with raising a child with ASD ? looking at factors from special education to social services to lost employment ? at $3 million, half borne by parents. According to the Autism Society Canada, lifetime assistance costs could be cut by 50 percent with early diagnosis and treatment, and adequate family support. NeurodevNet aims to improve our understanding of ASD?s causes, create better diagnostic strategies, and pinpoint molecular pathways relevant to developing biologically-based treatments. For CP, the incidence of development is approximately 2-2.5 per 1,000 births. CP is extremely complex; in addition to neuromotor impairments, it often features problems like epilepsy, cognitive limitations, sensory impairments, behavioral disorders, feeding difficulties, and musculo-skeletal complications. people with CP frequently need access to a range of specialized care, as well as educational and social support services. Recent estimates, reports NeurodevNet, suggest that the increased cost per case of CP is roughly $1.5 million over a lifetime. despite advances in preventing and treating some causes, the percentage of babies who develop CP has remained unchanged for 30 years. NeurodevNet will explore potential avenues for both preventing future cases of CP, and better treating existing cases. The third area of NeurodevNet?s focus is FASD. prenatal exposure to alcohol is a major, preventable cause of behavioural and cognitive deficits in children. Yet despite much research and awareness, FASD ?represents a public health problem of epidemic proportions,? says NeurodevNet. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome itself appears in an estimated 1-3 births per 1,000 in North America. However, gestational alcohol exposure produces a wider range of birth defects and abnormalities than those seen in fetal alcohol syndrome alone. this larger group, referred to as FASD, could occur as frequently as one in every 100 births. the estimated lifetime costs ? $1-3 million per child. With FASD, the impact of gestational alcohol exposure often goes undetected until the child reaches an age when normal functions should be maturing. the potential affects vary greatly, from mild-to-moderate brain dysfunctions (e.g. memory, social communication, attention span, motor and sensory), to childhood depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. the combination can lead to severe adaptation problems at home, school or work, and in society. The NeurodevNet researchers will explore a few fundamental questions. How do genetic and environmental factors interact with gestational alcohol exposure to produce common deficits in children (neurobehavioural and neurobiological)? And how to best to develop diagnosis and treatments for affected children? Can NeurodevNet help to ?build strong children? so we have fewer broken adults to repair? Considering the long-term consequences of brain disorders, doing so would have an enormous impact not only on children who suffer from these disorders, and their families, but on all of Canadian society. [] ?Nothing is more heart wrenching,? says Dr. Goldowitz, ?than a brain disability that limits a child?s participation in society. that?s the difference we want to make.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/34846349/attachment-0001.html From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:54:05 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 23:00:23 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Violence in the classroom Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328225353.03f5ca08@ncf.ca> Skipped content of type multipart/related-------------- next part -------------- From rosse at ncf.ca Sun Mar 28 23:57:33 2010 From: rosse at ncf.ca (Elspeth Ross) Date: Sun Mar 28 23:00:27 2010 Subject: [Fasd_canadian_link] Man breaks nose after crashing stolen dump truck: New Brunswick Message-ID: <6.2.5.6.2.20100328225722.03f82c78@ncf.ca> "...Ward suffers from a number of psychological problems including attention deficit disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional behaviour and has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as diagnosed by a psychiatrist. She said this largely helps explain his impulsive behaviour and why he has been so disruptive in court .." Man breaks nose after crashing stolen dump truck Laura MacInnis Miramichi Leader. Telegraph-Journal. Saint John, N.B.: Mar 27, 2010. pg. I.2 A stolen dump truck didn't turn out to be such a great way to get home from the bar for James Ward. The Red Bank man appeared in Miramichi provincial court earlier this week to be sentenced for a number of theft and breach of probation charges including stealing a gravel truck from Newcastle Ready Mix. He received six months for all the convictions after pleading guilty to everything. Crown prosecutor Bannon Morrissy told Judge Geri Mahoney he felt Ward needed more time in custody for his crimes. On July 30, the 24-year-old left the bars for the night, but when he realized he didn't have a ride home he went looking to steal a vehicle. Ward told police he first went to Clearsight Auto Glass and tried to hot-wire a Ford F-150. When that didn't work he "smashed the truck window out of frustration." Then he spotted the gravel truck and, finding the keys inside, tried to drive it home. Not understanding how to drive such a big rig and not knowing how to use the brakes, he quickly crashed the truck. He hit a culvert, causing $4,400 in damage to the vehicle and broke his nose on the steering wheel. In an apology letter to the court Ward said he acted alone and had only stolen the vehicle because he needed a ride. Morrissy said though the damage was extensive Newcastle Ready Mix was able to save money in repairs by fixing the dump truck themselves using second-hand parts. Having no job, Mahoney acknowledged it was unlikely Ward would ever be able to pay restitution for the dump truck or the Ford's window. Ward was picked up by the Miramichi Police Force and held in custody Jan. 12 for stealing a box of Crest White Strips from the Pleasant Street Sobeys and attempting to steal a bottle of rye from the liquor store for which he also pleaded guilty. After being place in custody that day he was charged with damage to his cell for cutting himself and smearing blood all over the walls - writing his name with his own blood and "666-" and for flooding the cell toilet. Later when he appeared in court on the charges he broke the handcuffs he was wearing and was charged with damage to court property. For each of these crimes he also pleaded guilty to breaching probation, having been released from a 37-month prison sentence only months before. His legal aid-appointed lawyer, Melanie MacAulay told the court Ward suffers from a number of psychological problems including attention deficit disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional behaviour and has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as diagnosed by a psychiatrist. She said this largely helps explain his impulsive behaviour and why he has been so disruptive in court on other occasions. "We've seen him in court blurting out things that are contrary to his best interest," MacAulay reminded the court of times Ward spoke out of turn to MacAulay and was removed from the courtroom. "Stealing the gravel truck was an impulsive act. It would have been obvious to anyone who went looking for it," she said, explaining it was clearly not the planned actions of a cunning thief. His parole officer suggested he be placed in a special care home and MacAulay said her client wished to serve a conditional sentence rather than more jail time. Ward, on nearly every appearance in court has cursed and given the finger to members of the media and disrupted the judge. However, during sentencing he apologized for his behaviour in court. "I want to say I'm sorry for being disruptive. And I want apologize to that lady," he said pointing to this Miramichi Leader reporter. "I'm sorry for swearing at her and giving her the finger. I just didn't want my name to be all over the community in the newspaper." Ward cried, saying he was trying to turn his life around by going back to school and spoke of not "having a hard time" with other inmates in prison. "Just because I have [Fetal Alcohol Syndrome] I'm going to spend most of my life in jail. Cause I'm impulsive"[broken bar]my family tries to help me, but that makes me want to do the opposite of what they say and then I get in trouble." He said his health problems mixed with his drug addiction was a dangerous combination. "I took too many pills that night," he said of stealing the dump truck. "It let my inhibitions down. It made me feel invincible." Letters of support came to the judge from his doctor as well as Chief Noah Augustine. The judge said she was impressed with the support he has in the community and the wisdom he showed in speaking about his impulsive behaviour. But she said she could not let him out of jail immediately because the charges were "too many, and too serious." Due to the remand credit he received from being in custody since January, he will only serve 45 more days in jail followed by six months' probation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/attachments/20100328/a08ded80/attachment.html