Canada FASD Conference

The Canadian FASD conference took place in Saskatoon in November, sponsored by the CanFASD Research Network in partnership with the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Canada Northwest FASD Partnership.

Like no other FASD conference to date, the attention to prevention was phenomenal.  And the warmth, respect and solidarity among researchers, families, service providers, government representatives and individuals with the disability was wonderful to experience.

Some highlights from presentations related to our 4 levels of prevention:

See Developing an Innu FASD Prevention Strategy and Giving Birth to a New Area of FASD Research

See Healthy Care Pregnancy Program

See the Prevention Conversation and Project Choices

See Alberta PCAP Council

See Global Alcohol Policy Alliance

Across the four levels, there was:

• A workshop on the 4 levels of FASD prevention that was offered in a world café style. We were heartened by how many people came to learn and offer ideas about prevention.
• Finally, at a plenary panel on day two of the conference we reflected on our pNAT work from research, practice, policy and lived experience perspectives. Dr Mary Motz reflected on the foundations of her longstanding practice at the Breaking the Cycle program, Melanie Muehling highlighted the cross-disciplinary approach of the Government of Manitoba in partnership with community programs, researchers and people with lived experience, Lisa Lawley from Terrace, BC spoke compellingly on how we can continue to support women with lived and living experience, and Dr Nancy Poole commented on the future of FASD prevention work at all the 4 levels.  We thank Myles Himmelreich as emcee for making the panel intro and closure so much fun.

We are also thankful to the CanFASD Research Network for all these opportunities to show how FASD prevention work is being advanced in Canada.