The goal of this conference is to enhance our understanding of people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the effectiveness of caregiving/parenting and support services in Niagara.  The Neurobehavioural Model for assessment and intervention planning is strength and outcomes based, and proven to be effective.  This conference is ideal for caregivers/parents and all service providers within Mental Health, Developmental Services, Addictions, Education, Justice, Housing and Social Services!

PRESENTER:

Diane Malbin

M.S.W., is a clinical social worker, program developer, and consultant who is a published author. Research findings of improved outcomes for people with FASD, based on her neurological model have been presented nationally and internationally. She teaches and consults with parents, educators, health and social service providers and treatment professionals across the US and Canada. She is a parent of two young adults with FASD.

Please register by mail ONLY:

April 13, 2012

Cheques payable to

Bethesda Services

c/o The Southern Network of Specialized Care

3280 Schmon Parkway

Thorold, ON, L2V 4Y6

For Information contact nhall@bethesdaservices.com

April 26, 2012

9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Four Points Sheraton

3530 Schmon Parkway

Thorold, Ontario

$75.00 for professionals

$40.00 for parents

Lunch Provided

Special Evening Session for Parents ONLY!

April 26, 2010, 6:30pm-9pm

(same location)

**Free to parents who attend the full day!

**$10.00 to attend ONLY the evening session!

This event is hosted by the Niagara FASD Networking Group and

sponsored by The Southern Network of Specialized Care

Registration Form

FASD Neurobehavioural Conditions:

A Model of Understanding

April 26, 2012 from 9am-4pm

9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Four Points Sheraton

3530 Schmon Parkway

Thorold, Ontario

$10 for Parents’ evening session ONLY

Registration is not complete until full payment is received.

Make cheques payable to:

Bethesda Services c/o The Southern Network of Specialized Care

No refunds after April 13, 2012

Cheque           Cash

Mail to:

Diane Smith-Coomber

Southern Network of Specialized Care

c/o Bethesda Services

3280 Schmon Parkway

Thorold, Ontario, L2V 4Y6

By Paul Jankowski

Posted 4 days ago

The public perception of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder — a child of a low functioning alcoholic who will live with a small head, small eyes, an underdeveloped jaw, thin upper lip and other facial anomalies — is among the many myths Diane Malbin and Dr. Karen Baker want dismissed.

"Day 19 is the only time during pregnancy that alcohol consumption can create" those facial features, Malbin said in an interview. "People who are drinking prior to or after that, you can have the brain effects, the neurobehavioural effects, without the facial features, which is why 95% to 98% of the people exposed to alcohol, even considerable alcohol, during pregnancy will have no observable physical features."

Malbin, an expert and educator brought in from Oregon, and Baker, a psychologist with Regional Support Associates and a member of the Grey Bruce Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Community Mobilization Committee, are among the 200 or so people who spent three days this week at a symposium in Owen Sound discussing new approaches to dealing with people with FASD.

A smaller leaders group was to meet today to try to find a way to continue the momentum created by the symposium, the largest to date by the local committee, Baker said.

"About 80% of us women drink and . . . 75% of us don't plan our pregnancies. Even social drinking overlaps early pregnancy and the damage that can be done prior to knowledge of conception can be considerable," Malbin said.

One American researcher has estimated that 16% to 30% of all pregnancies can be at risk and a Canadian study found that "the population who is at greatest risk for drinking during pregnancy and giving birth to a child with a degree of effects are white, college educated, single, over 30, an average income over $50,000 a year," she added.

The three days of sessions at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre were being held because "we've got to go beyond here's the problem to formulating . . . (ways to) help support these individuals better. Many people with FAS end up in the justice system, many, many. They end up having trouble in school," said Baker.

The general rate of FASD is thought to be 1% to 3% of the population. A study of meconium — the first fecal excretion of a newborn — found 4% of the babies in Grey Bruce "had significant exposure" to alcohol in the last half of the mother's pregnancy "putting those children at risk," Baker said. That risk is "brain damage."

A pamphlet from the local groups' justice subcommittee notes that "60% of people with FASD over 12 years of age have been charged with or convicted of a crime."

"They don't end up in jail because they're inherently flawed or bad . . . about 80% of people in jail have some evidence of a learning disability or other kind of brain disfunction, so a high percentage of people with a brain dysfunction do end up in jail and that can be because they're suggestible, they're impulsive. They don't understand the consequences (of their actions)," Malbin said.

Research, some 20,000 to 30,000 articles into the affects of alcohol, drugs and other events on brain function, shows that rather than willfully misbehaving, people with FASD have "an invisible physical disability," she said.

Instead of being someone "who won't do something . . . maybe they can't or they have trouble with it," because of a dysfunctional brain.

"This is not about excusing inappropriate behaviour or enabling, it's about recognizing the ideology, the underlying issue," Malbin said.

"A chid in school or an adult in court or whomever is expected to listen," Baker said by way of example. But to listen, a person needs a cognitive speed fast enough to follow what is being said and "somebody with FASD may have slow auditory processing speed. So when you look at that we see them as not listening, not paying attention."

The person interacting with them becomes "frustrated and we punish . . . Well if we recognize the fact that they have slow cognitive processing speed maybe we give them less work, slower speed, more time to write exams, more visual clues, those kinds of things . . . You can give them a time out, you can punish them, you can do all that but it's not going to work because it's not going to make the brain work faster," Baker said.

"One of the sayings is these kids are 10 second kids, but that's not the problem. The problem is they're in a one-second world," said Malbin.

"We know behaviours very well, we know how to try and change behaviours. But those techniques don't recognize brain dysfunction. So good parents, good professionals trying hard, using good techniques, typically get increasingly frustrated over time and so do the kids and adults (with FASD). We've been spending the last couple of days helping people understand the source of this frustration so we can move beyond it and develop appropriate accommodations that work," Malbin said.