Strong Born—A First of Its Kind National FASD Prevention Campaign in Australia Led by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) in Collaboration with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)

The Strong Born Campaign (2022–2025) was launched by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) in 2023. Strong Born is the first of its kind national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion campaign to address Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) within Australia. Strong Born was developed to address a longstanding, significant gap in health promotion and sector knowledge on FASD, a lifelong disability that can result from alcohol use during pregnancy. Utilizing a strengths-based and culturally sound approach, NACCHO worked closely with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) to develop the campaign through co-design, as described in this paper. Since its inception, the ACCHOs have continually invested in driving change towards improvements in Aboriginal health determinants and health promotion. The Strong Born Campaign developed culturally safe health promotion tool kits designed for the community and health sector staff and also offered communities the opportunity to apply for FASD Communications and Engagement Grants to engage in local campaign promotion. The tool kits have been disseminated to 92 ACCHOs across Australia. This paper describes the development of the Strong Born Campaign and activities following its launch in February 2023 from an Indigenous context within Australia, as described by NACCHO

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Standards: Supporting Children in the Care of Children’s Services

The purpose of this research was to examine the utilization of enhanced practice standards for children in care with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Children in care with FASD represent a vulnerable population and require multiple supports from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Children removed from the care of their parents were identified as having needs beyond standard care provided within Children’s Services in Alberta. To address this concern a project was initiated in 2002 and completed in 2005 which identified positive benefit from an increase in caseload hours for workers responsible for children with FASD in the Aboriginal Unit including more contact with children and additional supports for foster parents. Standards regarding family visitation are also highlighted. An additional casework position was developed in order to decrease caseloads and meet the standards. Changing the way child welfare and foster care services are delivered for children with FASD is an important phenomenon to study and this research may guide future interventions

A Profile of older developmentally disabled persons in the province of Alberta

Bibliography: p. 80-86

Becoming a birth mother of a child with fetal alcohol syndrome

Bibliography: p. 222-246The term and the meanings associated with 'Fetal Alcohol Syndrome' (FAS) originates from, and to a large extent has become institutionally colonized by, a positivistic-science dominated bio-medical model. This dissertation houses a qualitative inquiry into the lived experience effects and affects of what it means to become and be a birth mother of a child diagnosed with FAS. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, in contemporary Western society, has become overtly represented as a moralized disability. As such, the dissertation locates - historically, culturally, socially, politically, and medically - the evolution of a prevailing discourse, grounded in the bio-medical definition of FAS, that suggests if only women refrain, by choice, from alcohol use during pregnancy, then FAS will cease to exist. Discourse on prevention suggests if pregnant women do not refrain from alcohol, then these mothers-to-be must be held responsible - ethically, socially, morally, medically, politically, etc. - for any alcohol-related difficulties the child experiences. Although there are 'takes' and 'solutions' on what to do about FAS in medical or political or cultural environments, there are very few studies that offer any in-depth insights or understandings of the lives of birth mothers who, indeed, give birth to a child diagnosed with FAS. Therefore, the purpose of the research advanced in this dissertation is to develop deeper understandings of the lived experiences of birth mothers of children diagnosed with FAS. To accomplish this inquiry, a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology was employed to provide a thick descriptive and significantly interpretive frame by which birth mothers with children diagnosed with FAS could be engaged with in meaningful, non-threatening conversations about their life experiences. This novel approach resulted in conversational - interview data, hermeneutically cared for, showing the lives of eight (8) women between the ages of twenty-five (25) and sixty (60) all of whom had given birth to one or more children medically diagnosed with FAS. Thus, this study sought to honour the often unheard voices its participant women whose lives were significantly fraught with poverty, trauma, abuse, violence, and alcoholism

Editorial

Editorial for the Special Issue on FAS

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A disability in need of social work education, knowledge and practice

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a non-diagnostic umbrella term that describes a range of effects that can occur as a result of a mother consuming alcohol during pregnancy (SAMSHA, 2014). Awareness of the need for professionals to become educated on FASD has emerged as a critical topic in the field of social work and child welfare practice specifically. The social work practice response to children and families, in order to be effective, must develop and emerge from an FASD Informed Practice lens – which implies particular knowledge and competencies in practice. This article will highlight the need to recognize FASD as a disabling condition and identify why training and knowledge is essential in order to work effectively with children and families. Further, an educational pathway to FASD informed practice in relation to a broad array of interventions and enabling/supportive approaches relevant to social work theory will be identified. The focus of this paper is to identifying why knowledge and education on FASD is important to social work practice

Healing through Photography – A reflection on the Brightening Our Home Fires Project in the remote hamlet of Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories

This creative piece of work and writing showcases the work of a woman participant from the community of Ulukhaktok in the Northwest Territories (NT). Ulukhaktok is located on Victoria Island above the Arctic Circle. This community shares land with its neighbors in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut; located on the north end of the island. The hamlet of Ulukhaktok, NT and many small, remote and isolated places in the territories reflect a rich cultural Inuit heritage in regions, settlement areas and communities. There is a deep sense of interconnectedness within the North in a vast landscape that is known as home to Inuit culture. The purpose of the Brightening Our Home Fires Project (BOHF) was to work in four communities in the NT on a project related to prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in the north. A co-researcher living in the NT suggested the community of Ulukhaktok (formerly known as Holman Island, NT) as a place to visit and invite participation Annie Goose supported this project through participation, acted as a translator and supported us by facilitating meetings within the community. Annie is the primary author of the work shared in this paper. It was my privilege to share in this work and support the knowledge development and exchange that deeply highlights the impact of the Brightening Our Home Fires Project. This work speaks to the possibility of Photovoice in giving voice to unheard experiences in a creative and innovative way on complex areas of health. This article will be of interest to people who are interested in topics such as Northern Canada, qualitative research, women’s perspectives on health and healing, and those interested in Photovoice as a methodology

How Personal Perspectives Shape Health Professionals’ Perceptions of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Risk

This article examines how health, allied health and social service professionals’ personal perspectives about alcohol and the risks associated with alcohol consumption become non-clinical factors that may influence their professional practice responses in relation to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). It presents findings derived from a qualitative, interview-based study of professionals from a range of health, allied health and social service professions in New Zealand. The data derived from these interviews revealed four frames of reference that practitioners use when thinking about alcohol and risk: reflection on personal experience; experiences of friends, relatives and colleagues; social constructions of alcohol use and misuse; and comparisons to other types of drug use. The article concludes that these non-clinical factors are important considerations in professional decision making about FASD

Aboriginal Kinship Carers and Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Western Australia: Advancing Knowledge from an Indigenous and Disability Lens

Children and youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have limited access to assessment, diagnostic, and treatment resources – a distinct disadvantage in meeting their care needs in Australia. Limited knowledge exists on the intersection of FASD, Indigeneity, racism, trauma, and child welfare involvement. Notably, the lack of support for children with FASD increases the risk of adverse outcomes, including incarceration, homelessness, mental health problems, and early mortality. Children with FASD are often cared for in the child protection system by kinship carers, many without a diagnosis or the benefits of FASD informed care. Rarely considered is the Australian response to FASD or the Aboriginal worldview on disability. Qualitative research was utilized to conduct semi-structured interviews with six carers of Indigenous children with FASD–three foster carers and three relative or kinship carers. Seven core themes identified by carers included: FASD awareness, caregiver health, advocacy for the child, mothers of the children with FASD, loss and grief experienced by the carer, social costs, and children in child protection care. Carers identified that limited resources existed to address the disabilities and care needs of children, including training and respite. Financial disparity exists with relative carers receiving less income than foster carers. Carers demonstrated advocacy, resiliency, and resourcefulness in providing care. A lack of knowledge of FASD and core resources in child welfare services were identified as major challenges in providing care. This research examined the caregiving experiences of foster and Aboriginal kinship carers, caring for children with FASD in child protection