Page 1722 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
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Australian Guide to the Diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and develop treatment plans for ongoing care where diagnosed;
(b) better support future detainees in Bimberi by practicing robust collection and sharing of data relating to the assessment and screening of detainees;
(c) work with nationally recognised and accredited organisations to make sure best practice is reflected at each stage of the process and in all aspects of this work undertaken; and
(d) provide specific training to all Bimberi staff on how best to work with and support detainees with FASD.
I am pleased to move this motion today and to address this very important topic. One of the key strategies in the blueprint for youth justice in the ACT is “providing intensive individualised support to children and young people”, including “recognising individual circumstances and responding appropriately”. This strategy acknowledges that kids who come into contact with the youth justice system or who are at risk of coming into contact with youth justice all have unique needs and equally unique risk profiles. As a result, effective responses will be carefully tailored to each child’s or young person’s particular circumstances. This requires that a young person’s unique needs are known.
Unfortunately, some risk factors are frequently unknown. One of these is foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD. This disorder is characterised by severe pervasive neurodevelopmental impairment due to prenatal alcohol exposure. In the health community, it is “well recognised that FASD is underdiagnosed”.
Research that was published in the British Medical Journal only three months ago highlights this problem. Researchers recently assessed 99 children and young people in Western Australia’s Banksia Hill detention centre. Like our Bimberi, Banksia Hill is the only detention centre in WA. The published findings are staggering. Thirty-six per cent of the detainees who were assessed were diagnosed with FASD. Out of these 36 children and young people, only two had been previously diagnosed. This means that out of 99 kids screened in Western Australia’s youth detention system, more than one-third had a serious disorder that had not previously been identified.
I suspect this problem is not limited to Western Australia. The National Health and Medical Research Council recommend against drinking alcohol when pregnant, planning for pregnancy or breastfeeding, because evidence clearly shows that no amount of alcohol during pregnancy is safe. In many cases, alcohol consumption occurs unintentionally during the first few weeks of an unplanned pregnancy. However, the latest national drug strategy household survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that one-quarter of women reported having consumed alcohol after becoming aware that they were pregnant.
It is known that when an expectant mother drinks, the alcohol passes easily through the placenta within a couple of hours, giving the foetus a blood alcohol concentration that nearly matches their mother’s. Amniotic fluid retains the alcohol, which prolongs alcohol exposure for the foetus, which has minimal ability to metabolise it. Alcohol has potent effects on foetal brain development, the result being some form of FASD.
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