Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – Blame and Responsibility

Kids born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome disorders are twice punished in life. First they are born with an entirely avoidable mental incapacity, and secondly are more than likely to find themselves involved in crime, as victims or perpetrators.

The real cause of the problem of FAS as a public health liability, would seem to be that authorities with the responsibility to get to kids at risk,  (meaning those still in the womb) don’t want to target in their FAS education programs pregnant women who drink alcohol, who put their child at risk.

Since 2010, the Canadian Bar Association has expressed its concern that normal sentencing options for those who commit crimes, don’t seem to work for people who suffer from FAS related disorders. When people lack a capacity for insight, to learn from their mistakes, and have no control over impulsive behavior – jail is not a deterrent, nor is it a means to enable rehabilitation.

People with FAS disorders who get jailed for their anti social behavior and crimes simply are penalized once again, for an abuse committed against them by their mother.

With 1.9% of the general population suffering FAS related disorders, the percentage of people of aboriginal origin that suffer from FAS is far higher. Aboriginal people account for 17% of the prison population. It can be assumed that many are there because they suffer from untreated FAS disorders.

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In 2006, FAS was flagged as a growth industry – with government prepared to pay out to carers, on behalf of families with an FAS child, that cannot afford the bills, a massive $14,000.00 per year, per child by way of a subsidy for drug costs, “special education” needs, and physiotherapy.

We need a supply of FAS affected kids to support what has become a $344 million a year industry to which affected families contribute only 19% of the cost – if they can afford it.

Researchers in the field are not calling for more resources to stop FAS, only for more money to treat people, born into this world, suffering from FAS related disorders. People are calling for more money to service FAS affected “clients”, for more money to enable research and development into ways of treating FAS.

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The chair of the FASD Action Network recently said in an article that members of the network meet each month to discuss strategies for dealing with FAS, working on a website and delivering educational packages to a variety of agencies, schools and interest groups, together with lectures and workshops, in partnership with Queens University.

“They do not target their message to pregnant women, because they want to remove the blame.”

They target other people, who it is hoped, will talk to women who they know, who are pregnant and drinking alcohol, so that they can inform the pregnant mothers that they should not be alcohol drinking and that they should stop.

Researchers at Queens University have now been funded for 15 years in the field of FAS disorders. They remain hopeful that better diagnoses and new treatments will be found.

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Although researchers can now assess brain damage by measuring eye control in people affected by FAS, no one has yet discovered a way to stop pregnant women from drinking.

And yet, what well adjusted and healthy woman would choose to drink alcohol while pregnant knowing that alcohol drinking could damage her child.

It is not a matter of blaming to approach a pregnant woman and enquire about her level of alcohol drinking, it is not a harmful intervention to offer a pregnant woman comprehensive alcohol counseling that will not only stop her from wanting to drink, but improve her overall health and eventual outcomes for the pregnancy.

The truth about why FAS authorities don’t approach pregnant, alcohol drinking women is that they have nothing to offer them that can stop them from alcohol drinking,

The average cost of a comprehensive alcohol recovery program in Canada might be around $14,000 and you have a potentially pregnant woman, or someone already with child, completely off alcohol for the rest of their life, This compares favorably with a period from 5-16 years, when around $14,000 a year is expended, on every FAS child in FAS recovery, and the related social cost of services that will need to be provided to the alcoholic mother of the FAS child.

Brain injuries caused by FAS might not be irreversible – in fact it is by use of comprehensive alcohol rehab services that people most affected by FASD stand the best possible chance of recovery. The methods that best treat alcohol addiction, also best treat the side effects and symptomatology associated with alcohol abuse, whether it be fetal or intentional.

It is never too late to start on a comprehensive alcohol abuse recovery program – even if the alcohol got into your system when you were still a fetus. Many children of alcoholic parents suffer from FAS related symptoms – with self help and assisted recovery programs bringing only limited relief.

People who suffer from alcohol abuse related cognitive and emtional disturbance can be helped by comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery programs to get a new start in life, and to overcome problems that have been induced by alcohol toxicity.

We will never get to celebrate the last case of FAS under the present regime that prioritizes the mother’s drinking, over the entitlement of every child born in this world to enjoy optimal health.

Mothers who get the message, children with FAS related disorders will find help, and healing at comprehensive alcohol addiction recovery programs in Canada.

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Now is the moment, in which we live, now is the moment to make change. Leave the past, and gain a future – with comprehensive alcohol addiction – drug free recovery programs, in Canada.