A new 5 week program for parents/caregivers who care for toddler/preschool age children who may have FASD. Please contact Heather at heather@gpfes.com to register.

We’re taking a short break from our CanFASD webinar series for the month of December but will return in the new year. In the meantime, you can re-watch all of our past webinars on our YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to get regular updates!

Here are a few other series you may be interested in.

Parenting During a Pandemic

Strong Minds Strong Kids ran a webinar with expert panelists Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy called Guilt, grief, and grace, oh my: Parenting during a Pandemic. This is a great resource for caregivers who are struggling balancing childcare with regular responsibilities during a pandemic.

Perinatal Substance Use

B.C.’s Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health ran a fall webinar series called Learning & Acting Together – Perinatal Substance Use. This four-part series included panel discussions from a number of experts with research, practice, policy, and lived experience.

Learn about:

• Reducing Stigma, Supporting Parenting
• Benefits of Wraparound, Multi-Service, Community-Based Programs
• Acute Care and Addiction Treatment for Mothers and Children
• Tools, Resources and Guidance to Support Practice and Policy

Indigenous Cultural Safety

PHSA Indigenous Health developed a webinar series about Indigenous Cultural Safety in collaboration with an advisory circle of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders across Canada.  

This learning series addresses a broad range of issues related to how Indigenous people experience and interact with a number of different systems, such healthcare, justice, education, and child-welfare. They provide a space to address the complex experience of Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination while promoting advocacy and empowerment.

There are 12 webinars to choose from, with presentations from a number of different community leaders across Canada.

Implications of COVID-19 

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) has put together a webinar series about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on substance use and access to healthcare services and supports.

These webinars feature presentations from leaders from across Canada who discuss issues such as harm reduction, domestic violence, adverse childhood experiences, youth, and more. You can watch all of the recordings on their website. 

FASD Learning Series

The Government of Alberta put together a free FASD Learning Series with close to 100 videos available about various topics related to FASD. You can see presentations from a number of experts and community leaders, including some from our very own CanFASD Research Leads. 

This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass is a heartwarming and honest series that tells short stories about the lives of adults with FASD as they adapt to the new challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was filmed and created by the staff and residents at Options for Independence, a supported housing initiative in the Yukon for adults with FASD.  

Happy watching!

Retrieved from: December Webinar Update (canfasdblog.com)

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) is hosting a free virtual workshop on February 3, 2021 to address the important role of front-line service providers in screening for alcohol use during pregnancy and supporting women throughout pregnancy.

SAVE THE DATE – Registration opens January 4, 2021

*Spaces are limited and will be available on a first come basis.

Register by signing up for an email reminder HERE and be notified once registration opens in January.

This workshop includes expert guest speakers, a lived experience presentation, opportunities for discussion, and an interactive virtual learning experience! Participants will receive a certificate of attendance and a package including evidence-based screening tools. 

Here is the link to the Eventbrite page: VIRTUAL WORKSHOP FOR FRONT-LINE SERVICE PROVIDERS Tickets, Wed, Feb 3, 2021 at 1:15 PM | Eventbrite

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The 2021 Symposium is a virtual event. Attendees will be able to participate online (virtually) from home or office from all parts of Canada and the United States.

The Regular rate is $125 CAD and is available until the registration cut-off of January 15, 2021

For more information visit: FASD Symposium Registration Information | ABLE2

Excerpt from https://healthexperiences.ca/perinatal-mental-health/mental-health-and-pregnancy

In this film, you will see and hear women talking about their experiences of mental health problems during and after pregnancy. Researchers from the Canadian Health Experiences Research Group, at St. Mary’s Research Centre and McGill University, interviewed 21 women in Quebec and Ontario. We asked them about, for example, the challenges they encountered, what sorts of supports were helpful, as well as about what could be improved. This film presents key themes that were important to these women with examples from their stories. We hope that by listening to these women, people might reflect on their own experiences as a patient or someone who cares for someone with these problems, including friends, family and healthcare professionals, and help ‘trigger’ ideas about what could be done differently to improve the lived experiences of those with perinatal mental health problems.

Our sincere thanks to all the women who participated in this study.

We welcome feedback from anyone using this film, to know how and where it was viewed, and if it was helpful in some way.

We are grateful to the Royal Bank of Canada Foundation for providing financial support for this study.

This research is part of the Canadian Health Experiences Research Program: https://healthexperiences.ca/

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pdvVKOO3BpE?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

Amy Bell · CBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2020

This story is part of Amy Bell’s Parental Guidance column, which airs on CBC Radio One’s The Early Edition.

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From “quarantinis” to zoom cocktails, the pandemic certainly hasn’t been a dry one.

With liquor stores deemed an essential service, and alcohol easily available for delivery, many people have been turning to the bottle — including parents.

According to a study conducted by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction shortly after the pandemic first threw our lives into chaos, seven out of ten Canadians were, obviously, at home more. And of those people, two out of ten reported an increase in their drinking — for different reasons.

• CBC INVESTIGATESDo alcohol and COVID-19 isolation mix? Some health experts don’t think so

Dr. Seonaid Nolan, a clinician researcher with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, says the reasons for increased consumption differ between men and women. 

“Women were more likely to cite that stress was the predominant reason for an increase in their alcohol consumption compared to men,”  Nolan says. “Men were reporting an increase in their alcohol consumption mainly as a result of boredom.”

Registered clinical counsellor Kuldip Gill has also noticed the trend in her patients.

“People are describing a pattern of drinking more,” Gil says. “The lack of routine, structure that we had to our day, stress … all could be contributing reasons to why we are drinking more. People are developing different coping strategies.” 

Sara Funk also increased her intake significantly in the first weeks of COVID restrictions.

Alcohol was an easy way for her and her husband to escape the stress and worry temporarily each night. But as the weeks have turned to months, both she and her partner are still indulging more than she is always comfortable with, and she worries how that might impact her three teens. 

“They’ll be like ‘Are you drunk mom?’ That actually kind of bothers me where I’ll actually go ‘Oh, maybe they are paying attention?’” Funk says.

Click here for the full article.

Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/people-are-drinking-more-during-the-pandemic-including-parents-1.5810488

and preventionconversation.org

Join international colleagues at the Virtual Solutions for Substance Use Care Conference. Registration is free.

This conference will provide a good overview of the core elements of virtual mental health care given by international colleagues. From online prevention to psychotherapy and from risk assessment and management to virtual clinics. In workshops, you will get the opportunity to learn more about ongoing projects in detail with the opportunity for exchange and networking. The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, The University of British Columbia Addictions and Concurrent Disorders Research Group, and the World Psychiatric Association section for informatics and telemedicine have brought together a significant group of pioneers in this field with the aim of broadening the efforts of mental health and substance use care.

Learn more about the conference and register here: http://bit.ly/VSSUCC

Retrieved from: https://preventionconversation.org/2020/11/19/register-for-the-virtual-solutions-for-substance-use-care-conference-december-9-10/

Register now for our webinar, Pain as Experienced by Individuals with FASD. This 60-minute webinar with Dr. Kathryn Birnie, Dr. Kyle Sue, Catherine (CJ) Lutke, and Myles Himmelreich will be held on November 27, 2020, at 1:00pm EST.

Pain as experienced by individuals with FASD is under-researched and frequently misunderstood and under-recognized in the medical community. People with FASD have varying levels of pain tolerance, ranging from high to low. This means that individuals with FASD may not recognize that they have an injury. Additionally, their disability may make them unable to communicate their pain. The stigma surrounding FASD may cause physicians to dismiss their pain as ‘made up’ or view it as a means to an end.

In the webinar, Dr. Kyle Sue will present on pain as experienced by individuals with FASD including topics such as the prevalence of pain and sensory issues, the biological underpinnings of pain, how pain presents in the real world, management of pain, and pain across the lifespan. Following this presentation, CJ Lutke and Myles Himmelreich will discuss how pain influences their lives as individuals with FASD. Dr. Kathryn Birnie will then provide an overview of Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network working to improve children’s pain management.

This webinar is geared towards individuals with FASD, caregivers, front-line workers, healthcare professionals, but all are welcome to attend. Be sure to register now!

Retrieved from: https://canfasdblog.com/2020/11/13/new-webinar-pain-and-fasd/