This is a list of ideas for parents/carers to act as first aid for a healthy body and a happy mind!
The first aid ideas have been split into three sections, with each section being a different stage of behaviours from the person living with FASD.
Some of the ideas will require preparation and research, but this is a great investment in administering your own first aid.
Click on the button or image below to download.
Webinars for building carer resilience
NOFASD Australia partnered with American FASD specialist Eileen Devine to create these valuable videos and resources. Taking care of yourself is essential, not just for your own wellbeing but also for your family.
To download and print the presentation slides, please click here
Download the accompanying worksheet here
To download and print the presentation slides, please click here
Download a full-page copy of The intersect of behaviours, values and brain function (slide 12)
About Eileen Devine, Licenced Clinical Social Worker
Eileen Devine is a therapist in Portland, Oregon USA who works with parents of children with neurobehavioral challenges through her private clinical practice, FASD Northwest. She has over a dozen years of clinical experience, with a special emphasis on working with families impacted by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and other brain-based, neurobehavioral conditions that have challenging and confusing behavioural symptoms. With the use of teleconferencing technology, she consults with parents nationally and internationally, providing them with the support they need to implement the neurobehavioral model into their everyday parenting and interactions with their child. Eileen is an instructor for the Post-Master’s Certificate in Adoption and Foster Family Therapy through Portland State University’s Child Welfare Partnership where she teaches other providers about FASD and how to use the neurobehavioral model in their work with families impacted by this disability. She has the great fortune of facilitating dozens of other trainings and workshops for parents and providers each year on a variety of topics that are relevant to the experience of being a parent of a child with a neurobehavioral condition. In addition to this professional experience, Eileen has the lived experience of parenting a child with a diagnosis of FASD, so understands intimately the day-to-day struggles her clients are working through. Her goal is to support parents and caregivers of children with these frequently misunderstood brain-based conditions on their unique parenting journey so that they, their children, and their family can thrive.
Eileen Devine offers a downloadable journal, 14-days of reflection on your neurobehavioral parenting journey, and also publishes a blog on her website
To read the blogs Eileen mentions in the second webinar click below:
Webinars for building carer resilience
Professor Jane Fisher and Researcher Maggie Kirkman from Monash university have published Disenfranchised Grief in the context of COVID 19 in a Monash Lens.
Many people are experiencing free-floating anxiety in response to the adaptive challenges and uncertainty associated with COVID-19. Anxiety can reduce capacity to concentrate, and to plan and organise activities.
Helpful guidance has been provided by government and non-government agencies on the benefits of maintaining routines, social connections and exercise, and the potential harms of isolation, lack of access to purposeful activities, and increased alcohol consumption. However, there are other psychological consequences of the essential constraints associated with the pandemic; awareness of these consequences can enable people to understand and manage their emotions. Foremost among them is disenfranchised grief. Click here for article.
It would be appreciate if you could complete an anonymous online survey that is being conducted by Monash about how people are experiencing the COVID 19 restrictions. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and we want to understand the experiences of as many people in Australia as we can.
