Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
The field of mental health is rarely smooth and clean, espe-cially community mental health. Layers of influences from past trauma, socioeconomic status, gender issues and racism--to name a few--complicate the healing of a disordered mind and heart. One of these layers often goes unrecog-nized, and it does enormous damage through the lifespan. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are now estimat-ed to affect roughly 5% of us, but is usually misdiagnosed as AD/HD, Bipolar Disorder, personality disorders or just a really bad attitude. Other states are recognizing and adapting treatment to better support people on this spectrum; California lags way behind. This presentation will begin to raise Santa Clara County's ability to deal wit FASD, present in approximately 85,000 current residents and costing at least $2 million over each person's lifetime unless properly identified and supported.
Participants will:
- Discuss the prevalence, symptoms and range of FASDs
- Screen clients for this condition
- Adapt treatment to the particular needs of FASD
**This course meets the qualifications for 6 hours of continu-ing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs, as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Kathryn Page , Ph.D. has been working with FASD for a long time: she directed the FASD clinic at Valley Med 15 years ago; her disserta-tion was on prenatal damage among Adult Children of Alcoholics; she has presented on the subject across the US and in Mexico. One of her interests is translating scientific research into user-friendly language, and sharing that information as widely as possible--she has published in judicial, social work and lay publications, spoken on radio and participated in videos. She was consultant on the Governor's Pre-vention Action Counsel, and served on the federal interagency coordinating committee on FASD. She is currently the president of FASD NorCal, a parent-professional advocacy and support group.
Register on SCCLearn at https://www.sccgov.org/sites/scclearn/Pages/welcome.aspx.