Accommodating Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders 2015:
Strategies, Skills & Support
Re-balancing the wheel-A practical approach to healing
From the perspective of western science FASD is an incurable condition—a 'disorder' that is caused by a mother’s drinking when she is pregnant and for which there is no ‘treatment’. In my work in Elsipogtog First Nation I have come to the realization that it is more helpful to consider FASD as a 'dis-ordering' –a condition that has as much to do with generational trauma and socio-economic factors as it does with maternal drinking. From this perspective, informed by the elders in the community healing of individuals who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol comes about through the restoration of balanced relationships on many levels--the relationship of the individual to themselves, to their families and friends, to the world around them and to creator.
When FASD is seen in this light we become mentors, advocates and allies and our work as service providers is to help an individual with FASD re-connect on all these levels. Science tells us that there is no cure for FASD but I have learned that there is healing. Individuals with FASD have a wide range of gifts and abilities but they have difficulty putting their abilities to work in the world. Over the years in the FN community where I work we have developed many tools and many programs that have helped individuals with FASD to go on and lead successful lives.
This will be a practical session introducing practical approaches and tools to work with school age and adult populations with FASD who have also experienced high levels of generational and family trauma and socio-economic stress.
Keynote Speaker: Lori Vitale Cox PhD
Lori is currently the Clinical Coordinator at Eastern Door Diagnostic Team for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Related Conditions and tthe Director at Nogemag Healing Lodge for Youth, a program that works specifically with youth living with neurodevelopmental conditions related to trauma.
Lori works in Elsipogtog First Nation where she is clinical coordinator and founder of the Eastern Door Diagnostic Team, an indigenous diagnostic team for FASD and related conditions. She is also the Director of the Nogemag Healing Lodge, an alternative school for youth with neurodevelopmental disorders related to trauma and prenatal exposures. Lori has been active in FASD research, diagnosis, and intervention for many years. Her design of the Medicine Wheel Screening Tools for Screening of FASD and other Special Needs has been used in Community School Systems and Medicine Wheel Difference Game Cards for Intervention with mothers and youth with FASD or at high risk of drinking during pregnancy. In collaboration with the elders in the community Lori has also developed an FASD diagnostic tool used that takes into account the effects of intergenerational trauma.
Lori has traveled throughout the country giving training workshops on FASD to diverse groups such as physicians and provincial judges in NB, Innu elders in Labrador and teachers and social service professionals in the Yukon. A few years ago in a James Bay Cree First Nation in northern Quebec, community members attempted to teach Lori how to clean and take the feathers off of a partridge as part of an informal knowledge exchange. About that experience, Lori says "Although I attended Dalhousie University in Halifax obtaining my PhD in 1996 and my Masters in 1984 — I recognize that I haven’t yet mastered the art of plucking partridge".
Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications
Knowledge and Attitudes of Criminal Justice Professionals in Relation to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Lori Vitale Cox, Donald Clairmont, Seamus Cox
Can J Clin Pharmacol Vol 15 (2) Summer 2008:e306-e313; August 4, 2008
Impaired skill learning in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure
Robert Laforce Jr., Sharon Hayward, Lori Vitale Cox
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (2001), 7 : pp 112-114 2001 The International Neuropsychological Society
Alcohol Use and Pregnancy Consensus Clinical Guidelines
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada Vol. 32 #8 August 2010
George Carson, Lori Vitale Cox, Joan Crane et al.
Medicine Wheel Tools
Lori Vitale Cox
In the: National Screening Tool Kit: for Children and Youth Identified and Potentially Affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder edited by Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centres 2010 Ottawa: Available from the Public Health Agency of Canada publications, Ottawa.
Click here to find the full brochure
About Lori Cox
Dr. Maya Peled, PhD (MCS, BC)
Breaking Through the Barriers: Supporting Youth With FASD Who Have Substance Use Challenges
Press here for powerpoint presentation slides