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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
"If you are born with FASD, you can overcome and still live a happy, productive life."

Duing the past week, Val Bate has been telling her story of living with FASD to schools throughout the Tlicho region. - photo courtesy of Sandra Malcolm

That is the message Val Bate has been sharing with schools in the Tlicho region this month. The 54-year-old from Edmonton was born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and it has affected her for her entire life even though she was diagnosed with the disorder only four years ago.

By being open about how she copes with cognitive and physical disabilities, abuse and substance abuse, Bate hopes she can help students and teachers alike.

She tells those with FASD or other developmental disorders to, "Go to the professionals. The professionals are safe."

Bate visited schools in Behchoko, Whati, Wekweeti, and Gameti from Sept. 3 to 11.

She also shared her story with News/North through her long-time mentor Sandra Malcolm, clinical

supervisor for mental health and addictions with the Tlicho Community Services Agency.

Bate was born with several of the physical markers of FASD, including a lack of a fissure on her top lip, a flat nose and a thin upper lip. She also has a heart defect and scoliosis.

Additionally, she has always had difficulty in school. She dropped out in Grade 10. She also had a short temper and would often act out, which made teachers and those around her classify Val as "a bad child," said Malcolm.

"Everybody was expecting her to do better than she was but no one was helping her do better," she said. "They would say things like 'You're not trying hard enough.'"

Children with FASD can learn, said Malcolm, but, often, they just need to do it in a different way. Most need to learn things one at a time. They have difficulty multitasking.

Further complicating Val's struggles in school was a difficult family life. Her mother was institutionalized when she was three years old, and Bate and her two brothers went into foster care. She lived in three different homes - one in which Bate said she suffered "every kind of abuse."

As an adult, Bate found some stability with the Canadian military, serving as a special reservist off and on for 10 years. The army is where she met her husband, the father of her two children. It was also where she found alcohol.

"She struggled to parent," said Malcolm. "She's very happy to say she never hit them."

When her children were young, Val left them with their father.

"She feels awful about that," said Malcolm.

Bate first sought treatment for alcoholism in 1989 and after nine relapses, has been sober since Sept. 19, 2005.

In 2009, she was officially diagnosed with FASD.

"She was alarmed and upset and angry and all of those things," said Malcolm. "But as time went on, she realized it helped explain some of the things she had been going through, and she realized it was not her fault."

Early intervention is key in helping a child born with FASD, said Narine Margaryan FASD co-ordinator with the Yellowknife Association for Community Living.

However, diagnosis is difficult and the stigma attached to the disorder can make parents resistant to having their child tested.

"We don't know why the mother drank," she said. "They may not have known they were pregnant, they may have substance abuse issues."

Also, for NWT residents who live outside Yellowknife, the distance to travel for diagnosis is daunting, said Darren Jacquard, information, referral and support co-ordinator with the NWT Disabilities Council.

A team of specialists at Stanton Territorial Hospital is equipped to diagnose patients aged seven to 17 with FASD and work with 10 to 12 patients per year, said Department of Health and Social Services spokesperson Damien Healy.

The department does not keep data on the number of NWT residents who have been diagnosed. Neither does the Department of Justice, although spokesperson Sue Glowach said a number of inmates are known to have special needs.

The most defining attribute of FASD in comparison to other developmental disorders is that it is preventable, said Malcolm.

She explains the spectrum disorder as a scale of zero to 100, where zero is no effects and 100 is a severe disability leading to death.

As soon as a woman finds out she is pregnant, there is no safe amount of alcohol to consume without risking an impact on the baby, said Margaryan.

To raise awareness for prevention and those living with FASD, events are scheduled across the territory on Sept. 9, International FASD Awareness Day.

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