#121 Audrey McFarlane Breaking FASD News

One of my goals with The FASD Success Show podcast is to bring you a wide variety of guests, including those who are leading experts in the FASD community. Today’s guest, Audrey McFarlane is no exception. She returns for the third time and brings updates on research and some exciting announcements of interest to our listeners from anywhere in the world.

Ms. McFarlane is the Executive Director for the Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network. She was one of the founders of the Lakeland Centre for FASD and led this organization for almost 20 years. In the past 20 years, she has been passionate about working with individuals with FASD, their families, and service systems to develop best practice service models in rural diagnosis; community outreach, and prevention. Audrey has presented at the local, regional, national, and international levels on many issues related to FASD. As Executive Director of the national research network in FASD, she directs and encourages research in areas of FASD that is meaningful to families, individuals with FASD, policymakers, and service providers and to promote healthy pregnancies.

Our researchers also face stigma. A lot of the funding bodies don’t see FASD as the common disorder as it is or the difficulties that people may face so we have our work cut out to educate these funders about the importance of this work.

We know that individuals with FASD and parents/caregivers face stigma, but did you know that researchers who are applying for grants also face it? Audrey and I have an interesting discussion about that, as well as:

•  How CanFASD is encouraging young researchers into the field of FASD with a Trainee Pilot program they completed last year.
• What their goals and plans are for FASD Month and FASDay, including a new theme, a new partnership (think red shoes) and how you can participate no matter where you live.
• An announcement and details on their recent project (encouraged by concerns from caregivers) developing best practices to serve adults with FASD withing substance use treatment programs both in house and outreach programs.

Our Caregiver Survey is ongoing. It is international so anyone can participate. We want to be able to capture caregiver experiences and share them with governments to improve practices.

And if all that isn’t enough there are also details on the Caregiver Survey, a new Housing and Best Practices for youth program grant, exciting developments in their push for a National FASD Strategy in Canada and what’s on the horizon. If you are looking for advocacy ideas and resources you use to implement your own plans, you are going to want to tune into this one or check out the show notes!

Show Notes:

CanFASD website: Home - CanFASD

FASD Month Resources: FASD Awareness Month - CanFASD

International FASD Prevention Series: FASD Prevention Videos

International Caregiver Survey: Caregivers Needed to Share their Experiences!

National FASD Strategy: National FASD Strategy Resources

Strengths Podcast: #098 What does strengths based even mean?

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