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Setting
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Training
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Previous Issues
Summer
2002
Winter 2002
Summer 2001
Changing the way we think about fetal alcohol syndrome
By Terry Jorden
 Edmonton Police Service members participate in a fetal alcohol syndrome awareness course. |
Although fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) has been an identified disability for over 25 years, society is only now changing the way it reacts to and treats individuals with FAS, say various professionals working in the field.
FAS is an issue that crosses many institutional boundaries from daycare facilities to schools, social service agencies, law enforcement, the courts, correctional facilities, healthcare and more.
Some of the behavioural characteristics of FAS include learning, memory and behavioural problems. Those with FAS have difficulty making decisions, learning from their mistakes, maintaining appropriate social interactions and understanding the consequences of their behaviours. For professionals in the justice system, individuals with FAS are often repeat offenders convicted of petty crimes who do not respond in the same way as other offenders.
For the last few years, professionals throughout the justice system have been receiving specialized training on how to recognize and manage those with FAS.
Bob Sinclair, with Alberta Solicitor General, Correctional Services, said although no one knows exactly how many offenders are affected by FAS, based on some research and staff experience, "we strongly suspect FAS-affected individuals are over-represented in the criminal justice system."
"To work effectively with those with FAS we need to be aware of each person's abilities and disabilities and adjust our expectations and behaviour management strategies," said Sinclair.
| Solicitor
General FAS initiatives include: • development of a FAS training manual and a "train the trainer" workshop for 15 Corrections staff, who in turn provided awareness workshops to 1,300 front-line staff. • all new staff in young offender centres and new correctional officers in adult centres received FAS training. • Chief Crown prosecutors and assistant chief Crown prosecutors received a half-day training session. • over 400 Edmonton Police Service members received training. • participated in the Alberta Partnership on FAS, a coalition of government and community organizations with a mandate to create a provincial plan to address FAS issues. • organized a FAS justice committee made up of representatives from the four western Canadian provinces, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Nunavut and Alaska. • reviewed current policies and procedures in young offender centres. |
During their lifetime, those affected by FAS will likely come in contact with teachers, social workers, foster families, doctors, police, probation officers, judges and Crown prosecutors, correctional officers, addictions counsellors, employment counsellors, welfare officials and others.
Because FAS is irreversible and requires understanding and management and not treatment, many professionals working with FAS children and adults are frustrated with low success rates.
"These are the clients who have the poorest outcomes," said Debolt. "They challenge our professional outcomes. Understanding FAS will help decrease professional frustration and improve my profession's response to FAS."
Dr. Gail Andrew, a pediatrician at Edmonton's Glenrose Hospital who works with FAS-affected children, says there needs to be more education for medical students. Although further training is provided to medical students near the end of their training, she only gets a total of 10 minutes with undergraduate medical school students to educate them on FAS.
David Boulding, a lawyer from Coquitlam, British Columbia, was so concerned with the mistakes he made for a FAS client, that he posted an apology on an internet web site.
| FAS
SNAPSHOTS
A father of an adopted teenager with FAS told a conference in Red Deer in November that it took 16 years to diagnose her condition. During her life he has stood by his daughter through many problems - drugs, prostitution, 10 attempted suicides and a jail sentence. "I think there's a tortured soul in all those kids," he said. A boy is told by his parents to look both ways before crossing the road. When he gets to the curb, he looks up, looks down, and then starts to cross. After being pulled back to the curb, he said he did see a car driving toward him but he didn't know it would be coming to where he was. |
"I assumed, like most young offender clients, that their problems were fixable given the standard terms of probation orders and court order," he wrote. "I assumed that my client could tell the judge what happened in a way that would make sense. I assumed that they understood the notion of consequences. Steal a car. You go to jail."
Linda Franklyn, a probation officer with the Solicitor General, has delivered a half-dozen workshops to probation officers and Edmonton Police Service members.
"I think some workshop participants have their eyes opened when they realize they have probably encountered more people with FAS than they thought," Franklyn said. "A light goes on and they begin to understand why an offender or a victim acted the way they did."
"So after this training, they may feel less frustrated and ultimately be more successful in their job," she said.
| FAS
FACTS
• FAS is a series of mental and physical birth defects that can include mental handicaps, growth deficiencies, central nervous system dysfunction, facial abnormalities and behavioural problems caused by pre-natal exposure to alcohol. • About 10 in every 1,000 babies born in Canada suffer from FAS. • Despite advertising, increased awareness, and warning labels on liquor bottles, the rate of FAS has not fallen in the 29 years since it was first defined. • A recent BC study of youths remanded in custody for psychiatric or psychological assessments found that almost a quarter suffered from FAS. • US statistics suggest the institutional and medical costs for one FAS child are $1.4 million over a lifetime. • FAS is irreversible. • FAS is 100 per cent preventable. |
