Resources for Working with FASD

Submitted by rosslaird on Mon, 2006-03-27 19:22
rosslaird's picture

I've been facilitating workshops for social service professionals interested in learning more about FASD (technically, FASDs). FASD stands for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, which are neurodevelopmental disorders that affect twice as many people as autism. FASDs represent a wide range of symptoms, all of which are caused by exposure to alcohol in the womb.

The aim of these workshops is to educate people about FASDs. Toward that end I am providing the resources that I have created for the training. These four pdf files (attached below) include a basic introduction to what FASDs look like and how they are diagnosed, an overview of the context of these disorders and their risk factors, a collection of mentoring and parenting responses for those who work with individuals affected by FASDs, and some information on working with trauma (since about 90 per cent of those affected by FASDs are also traumatized.)

I hope you find these resources useful. FASDs are the leading preventable cause of (non-inherited) neurodvelopmental disabilities. We should be doing as much as we can to deal with this social problem.

AttachmentSize
basics_of_fasd.pdf55.53 KB
overview_fasd.pdf27.49 KB
responses.pdf63.91 KB
trauma_suggestions.pdf43.76 KB
team_health.pdf42.81 KB

1 comment

Hi Ross, I was

Submitted by Rod_CRWR_kwa on Fri, 2010-04-23 15:30.

Hi Ross,
I was interested in this article because my youngest daughter spent last week at a confrence for FASD in Central Vancouver. She has a BA in Psychology and is a facilitator with an agency that provides funding for programs for adults with mental disabilities. At the end of last year she was asked to establish an adult autism division. Do you provide guidance to agencies such as this, and do you mentor people who are involved in this type of work?

PS. Please email a reply to my home email address because I may not go into this website for the next couple of weeks.