Transcript
If there’s one home truth about FASD, it’s that it’s hidden. In this presentation, I’m going to share insights from our project for how this can be overcome. I’m Viv Lyall from the University of Queensland, working on Turrbal and Jagera land, and part of a team working with a regional primary health care service to progress FASD prevention and support.
Few health and social professionals know what FASD is, including how it can be prevented and managed – and this is really predictably so. FASD is at the fringe or entirely absent from tertiary education and professional development opportunities. And that’s across health, social, education, and justice sectors. And this lack of exposure is the first barrier professionals face to supporting meaningful FASD action.
In our project, we saw some of the ways that this plays out. We interviewed thirteen staff from the healthcare service and found they had little to no FASD awareness and lacked routine practices in prevention and support approaches. Some didn’t consider it relevant to their work, and others thought you needed the characteristic facial features to have FASD and that drinking in the first or third trimester wasn’t so bad. And one GP shared how FASD was not on the radar amongst colleagues, with autism and ADHD being the assessments they reached for. And even if FASD was considered, staff didn’t always know who to refer to. So it’s unsurprising that FASD is typically absent in client records. Symptoms are poorly understood. It’s commonly misdiagnosed or just straight up missed. There’s currently a lack of diagnostic clinics to refer to, and little understanding of appropriate support strategies.
Yet, missed support opportunities have huge implications for children and families, like increasing risk of mental illness, school expulsions and criminal justice system involvement amongst other challenges. And so, we provided FASD education and training, and observed clinic staff attitudes and practices starting to change at the service. To support clients in different areas, we also offered free training to health and social professionals in the region. And these efforts combined have supported several exciting developments. At the Health Service, a temporary FASD diagnostic clinic has been established to support client needs. And in the region, partnership grants have been sought to develop sustainable diagnostic services. and local paediatricians and psychiatrists have agreed to support FASD diagnostics. And also key agencies have requested further training to extend their staff awareness and capacity. So our project really highlights that making learning opportunities widely accessible, not only helps FASD to become more visible, but it can also mobilise inter-agency action. And for those reasons, we suggest such offerings should be first step in any efforts seeking meaningful action for the prevention and support of FASD. Thank you.