SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The hour before Doreen Reid stood in front of the banquet room of people at Yellowknife's Explorer Hotel to talk about her brain-based disability and how to overcome the shame sometimes associated with it, she was stressing out.

Doreen Reid, who has cerebral palsy, a brain-based disability, was part of a panel discussion titled Removing Shame and Dispelling Myths about FASD during the two-day Canadian Northwest FASD Partnership Symposium that began Wednesday in Yellowknife. - Erin Steele/NNSL photo

But not just because she was nervous about her speech. There was a platform, she knew, about a foot off the ground upon which she was expected to give her talk. Reid, who is slight and small in stature, has cerebral palsy which impacts her motor skills.

What is mundane to most was an obstacle for the Yellowknife resident who works as the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) consultant and project co-ordinator with the Department of Justice.

She was speaking at the Canadian Northwest FASD Partnership Symposium, an annual pan-territorial event meant to share best practices surrounding fetal alcohol spectrum disorder - an umbrella term for the disabilities and diagnoses directly related to alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

"I'm nervous enough about my presentation as it is, but I've got these other little things to think about. I'm thinking, 'How am I going to get up there?' and more importantly, 'How am I going to get down?'" she told Yellowknifer on Wednesday, the first day of the two-day symposium.

It is struggles like these, she says, that people with FASD have to deal with on a daily basis. Reid says she has learned to be a problem-solver. At the symposium, she noted two empty chairs at a table in front of the platform and grabbed the back of one to help her both up and down the platform.

"There was a time for years when I didn't want to have a disability, when I didn't want to be different and I went through life and I tried to be like everybody else. I've always had these challenges and limitations, but I wouldn't tell anybody about them," she said.

Reid said she has learned that admitting to her challenges is crucial, but added it's also important to recognize they are not necessarily unique to society at large.

"How many people have memory problems in general society? People with fetal alcohol (spectrum disorder) have memory problems as well, but it may be to a higher degree. How many people without fetal alcohol have alcohol abuse, substance abuse or addictions issues? But yet people with fetal alcohol have the same, but it's at an elevated, exaggerated level," said Reid.

Reid was part of a panel discussion entitled Removing Shame and Dispelling Myths about FASD.

"(Many people) think it's easy to prevent. All you need to do is stop drinking when you're pregnant or when you plan to get pregnant. But it's complex. There are many reasons why women drink alcohol," she said.

Marilyn Van Bibber, another speaker at the symposium and an associate director with the Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research, stressed the importance of addressing and recognizing the root causes of FASD.

"The root emergence of FASD came from a place where a lot of trauma has happened and people have dealt with that trauma through addictions and alcohol or drugs and other kinds of behaviours to cope with what's occurred," she told Yellowknifer, citing residential school and its decades of fallout as one root cause.

She was part of a panel speaking to the value of incorporating traditional knowledge and culture into prevention and intervention strategies for FASD.

"There are distinct indigenous groups of people (in the North). They each have their own teachings and if they were raised

in a traditional way, you would learn all these things. Learn about the land and learn about the underpinning that would guide your behaviour and how you conduct yourself," said Van Bibber.

"Basically, I feel that the development of traditional knowledge is something that is not going to be dictated from somebody like myself. It's going to be community-driven; community-based. That knowledge is in the community."

Van Bibber says long-term support is key.

"This is a permanent, life-long disability, so the supports need to be permanent and life-long as well," she said.

Recommendations and discussions like this one is the reason for the annual symposium, according to Donna Allen,

director of territorial health services with the Department of Health and Social Services.

"The purposes are to form that (pan-territorial) coalition to share best practices and learn from each other. To have some common messaging around how FASD can be prevented," she told Yellowknifer.

Although Health Canada estimates that one in nine people are born with FASD, just 27 children have been diagnosed in the territory to date, though according to Allen, this is not reflective of actual reality.

"You can't draw any conclusions about the prevalence in our population (based on these figures)," said Allen.

A diagnostic clinic opened in Yellowknife just four years ago and 46 children, who need to be referred for an assessment, have been assessed. Of those diagnosed, one has fetal alcohol syndrome, six have been diagnosed with partial FAS and 20 with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorders.

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