Resource Spotlight for FASD Awareness Month

Resource Spotlight for FASD Awareness Month
 


 
---
 

Dear Friends,

As we approach the end of September, I wanted to share a reprint of the Resource Spotlight of The Collaborative's Pulse (newsletter of the NC Collaborative for Children, Youth, and Families), which recognizes International FASD Month. Please click the links to read more about key issues for different communities and forward our newsletter to those help us raise awareness in North Carolina. Thank you.

With Hope,
Kathy Hotelling
Board Chair

 

---
 

September is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Month

Resource spotlight: NCFASD Informed, Inc.

NCFASD Informed is a grassroots 501c3 nonprofit organization helping to improve the outcomes of those impacted by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in North Carolina. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability. It is a spectrum disorder which can occur when a woman drinks alcohol while pregnant. It is more prevalent than autism, cerebral palsy, and Down's syndrome.

Unfortunately, awareness of FASD in health care, school, criminal justice, and counselling communities is limited. Misdiagnosis and missed diagnoses are negatively impacting outcomes for scores of children and their families across all systems in North Carolina.

Creating FASD informed Communities Across North Carolina

Since its inception three years ago, NCFASD Informed has been learning about how to best build FASD informed communities in North Carolina. We asked Dr. Kathy Hotelling, co-founder and Board Chair of NCFASD Informed, to distill the key issues which stakeholders should be most aware of about FASD. Click here for what Dr. Hotelling shared with us as a simple guide for key stakeholders around North Carolina.

A Family Impacted by FASD

Ms. Theresa Morris-Brown is the mother of a 29-year old son who was not diagnosed with FASD until recently. North Carolina Health (see in Other FASD Resources below) wrote an article on her struggle to get help at school, in the community and in the prison system for her son, entitled, "Does North Carolina do enough to help children affected by a mom's prenatal alcohol use?"

We asked Theresa if she could reflect and offer advice to other parents from her lived experience. Read more as Theresa stands back and provides perspective to other families impacted by FASD.

Other FASD Resources

"Does North Carolina do enough to help children affected by a mom's prenatal alcohol use?" https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/10/30/does-nc-help-children-affected-by-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder/
2020 FASD Podcast series: https://nccollaborative.org/ncfasd-podcast-series-2020
FASD SNAP Screening: "Knowledge is Power", an Interview with Yasmin Senturias, MD
American Academy of Pediatrics FASD Tool Kit: FASD Tool Kit

NC Collaborative


 
 
--
www.ncfasdinformed.org 
--