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It takes a community of support Small group attends workshop on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, September 19, 2013
INUVIK
While the statistics on the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder may be scant, interest in it is high.
Linda Eccles, left, and Danika Eccles attended an information session on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder Sept. 9 at Aurora College. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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About 20 people attended a workshop on the condition Sept. 8 at the Aurora Campus in advance of the international Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Day on Sept. 9.
The condition encompasses a wide spectrum of symptoms that are attributed to the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. The workshop was organized by the Health Family Program. Heather Wheating is the co-ordinator of that program, and she helped to organize the event.
"This is the second annual community baby shower," she explained. "It's done to show support for families and in recognition of FASD Awareness Day, which is Sept. 9."
"We here in our community have decided to really focus on the positive, and it's not about telling people, 'Don't drink while you're pregnant.' It's really about supporting families, and it's not just the woman's responsibility to have a healthy baby.
"It's not just for pregnant women and mothers, it's for the community. We really want to promote the healthiest pregnancy we can."
Last year, approximately 50 people attended the event at Ingamo Hall, Wheating said.
"You just never know how many people you're going to have," she said. "My philosophy is the number that's meant to be here will be here."
It's difficult to quantify how prevalent the disorder is, Wheating said. It's difficult to diagnose, and comparatively few resources have been available until recent years to focus on FASD exclusively.
"Your guess is as good as mine," she said. "It's very, very difficult to measure. I'm not sure how you measure it. It's more significant than we want to think about. I've been working in this field for a long time, and there's a lot of stigma around that we need to deal with. It's not helpful."
"It is one hundred per cent preventable," Wheating added.
Family liason and support
Lori Twissell of the Stanton Territorial Health Authority was the guest speaker. She's the family liaison with the Northwest Territories FASD Family and Community Support Program in Yellowknife.
"It's my role to be the contact for families before, during and after assessment," she said. "After, it's my role to stay in contact with the families."
Like Wheating, she said it's difficult to quantify the FASD problem.
"We don't know how common it is," she said. "We're into our fourth year with the clinic, and we see about 10 to 12 children a year. We don't like to speculate and we do have a waiting list of children who have been referred to the clinic, which means we don't know if they have it or not."
Twissell said a diagnosis involves analyzing "eight areas of brain function" by a team of specialists. An official diagnosis means a child displays "significant" signs in at least three of those areas.
The list includes academic achievement, communication skills, social skills and adaptive behaviour.
Most can be attributed to other disorders, such as attention deficit disorder, making diagnosis even more tricky.
"Every person has a different profile," Twissell said.
She fielded a number of question from the audience on the topic.
"I think it's important to have the education and knowledge about FASD," said Emma Ward afterwards, who was one of the spectators at the workshop.
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