Considerations for Service Providers: Stigma & FASD
The following 10 considerations are available as a free download, authored by Angela Geddes.
Please reconsider your biases regarding parenting problems and how we define good parents and successful children/youth and adults.
"Helicopter parents/caregivers" are often judged harshly, but their is a heightened and legitimate need to protect and advocate for their kids. This is paramount and should be respected.
We need to focus on protecting some of our most vulnerable, all the while focusing on dignity. It is important to think about how we would demonstrate love and support to our grandparents with memory issues or cognitive decline for a moment. I don't think we typically are as kind to our young people with legitimate memory and or organizational challenges.
With the right supports and messaging, FASD can be prevented and the impact of PAE/FASD can be mitigated.
People with FASD can be very good and capable parents yet there often is a presumption of incapacity.
When supports are in place and outcomes have improved please don't take the supports away assuming that our job is done. Let's shift and reduce the intensity of supports potentially, but keep the scaffolding in place otherwise we're setting individuals up for failure.
FASD is indiscriminate and is in all of our circles: professional and personal as well. Where there is alcohol, there is the impact of PAE and FASD. There are highly vulnerable populations identified based on who all have been diagnosed thus far. We must remember that many people with FASD just don't know it yet.
This is a Human Rights issue. "All persons with all types of disabilites must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms"
People have the right to make informed decisions, and we have the responsibility to offer evidence-based information.
Help spread the word. It is up to all of us to support healthy pregnancies and to ensure that we do what we can to help people be better understood.