FASD and Youth Housing

If you are finding life to be similar to us, life has very much became a marathon now.  Everyday is an exercise in self-discipline and trying to maintain some sense of routine.  We are finding we need to set our alarm to go off every morning to encourage us to get up and start our work day.  We need to follow our morning routine and have built in our day that the girl’s support worker always calls at 10am and does an initial activity with them over Zoom conferencing.  The kids move pretty slow in the morning while my wife and I are getting our work done.  The afternoon focus turns on them and working through their school work.  We always stop at 4pm and go for our walk or ride as a family which is absolutely a highlight.  Finally, with this beautiful weather, we focus on the yard after supper.

While this is our new normal, it is interesting to see all the online resources that are being offered now.  One of the big challenges we are finding, after spending hours online with my work, the kids’ work and the beautiful weather, is we really don’t want to be in front of screens watching other webinars and resources.  

However, a couple items that might be of interest to you is a short series of workshops that Kids Inclusive, who serve as the LHIN for our area, are doing on the F-Words from CanChild.  https://www.canchild.ca/en/research-in-practice/f-words-in-childhood-disability  The F-Words are protective factors that can help any child with a disability and are evidence-based from around the world.  This June 9 workshop will give caregivers an opportunity to connect with each other. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/f-words-family-event-tickets-104158378514

We also had a presentation done for the Rural FASD Support Network by Terrilee
Kelford of Cornerstone Landing.  Terrilee sits on a national advisory council related to youth homelessness and was gracious enough to share some of her knowledge.  As part of the presentation, she conducted a survey within our membership as to what type of housing makes the most sense for adults with FASD.  She found between the options of living at home, living in group home, living as a boarder, living in an apartment with immediate support, or living in an apartment without immediate support, 70% of responders said living in an apartment with immediate support made the most sense.  She also shared the model we use in Lanark County is called Housing First.  Essentially, we make sure the housing situation is taken care of first, then we focus on overcoming our challenges.  We don’t require compliance, good choices, or overcoming challenges like addictions to be done before offering a housing option.  Just like we hear in our education, justice and support sectors, someone with FASD can’t be expected to earn or gain housing unless we already have the necessary protective factors in place. To learn more about FASD and Housing, please watch the following video:   https://youtu.be/oz7PpRDX0ec

Will Covid19 increase FASD prevalence?

In the past couple weeks, there has been three major announcements related to children’s mental health that will be have impact for everyone.  While these announcements do have large influence on people with FASD, they will make a difference in everyone’s lives.

The first announcement was the Nanos study on alcohol consumption in Canada in the month of March https://www.ccsa.ca/covid-19-and-increased-alcohol-consumption-nanos-poll-summary-report and the corresponding announcement from the World Health Organization http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/alcohol-use/news/news/2020/04/alcohol-does-not-protect-against-covid-19-access-should-be-restricted-during-lockdown.  Nanos found that drinking among adults ages 18-34 has increased by 1/5 over normal consumption or 21%.  The WHO does make mention of the fact that increased alcohol consumption can lead to higher mental health challenges and alcohol-based disorders of which Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder would be classified.  Knowing alcohol consumption has risen significantly in the past month, the second question to be asked during this time of social isolation is can we expect to see a mini-baby boom in the months of Dec-Feb 2020/2021?  Obviously, the importance of prevention conversation is key right now to lowering the curve of FASD.  If you find yourself in a situation where you are having that conversation remotely, please know you can direct people to CanFASD’s material on FASD prevention at https://canfasd.ca/topics/prevention/#About.  When you consider 3-4% of our population likely have FASD (Popova 2018) and FASD costs our country 9.7 billion dollars per year (Thanh & Jonsson 2015), we want to be vigilant in helping lower that curve as well.

The second piece of information was in regards to Kids Help Phone.  As you may have heard, the federal government gave a lot of money to Kids Help Phone to support children’s mental health.  Their primary role is to serve as intake workers and system navigators and then do the referrals to the child’s local mental health unit for support and follow-up.  This is brilliant and the way it should be.  If you are finding your child needs mental health support, please call https://kidshelpphone.ca/  or 1-800-668-6868 and know you won’t be dealing with some faceless counsellor but in fact, will get connected with a local counselor.                                                                                                                           Finally, the Rural FASD Support Network had the pleasure of connecting remotely with Ella Haley, psychotherapist for Open Doors Children’s Mental Health in Lanark County.  Ella’s speciality is connecting sensory integration and mental health.  We had the opportunity to hear why movement and exercise have large impact on our mental health.  Some of our caregivers shared how distance learning for our children is helpful as long as everyone has safe quiet places to retreat when necessary.  Ella started with how our awareness of our body in space, our balance and orientation and how our internal organs feel has major impact on our ability to work and be with others particularly in school.  She then spoke about how children with sensory modulation challenges can be found in four different quadrants related to threshold and self-regulation and the primary challenges they can face.  She finished with some general strategies for caregivers pointing out the key is creating a safe, non-judgmental space for all with a desire to learn used in an empathic way. https://youtu.be/U4FlZrxE4A                                                                                                                               As we go through this cultural shift with a focus on finding ways to connect in a virtual manner, we do express our appreciation for all our frontline workers particularly those who are working and living in long-term care homes, hospitals, and prisons.  We also thank those who enable us to provides for our essential needs including our food service people, truckers, transportation people, and grocery store workers.  We know as Canadians; we have the ability to do this and will be stronger in the end for it.  Stay safe and remain connected.