Prisoners Of/With FASD
CTV National News “In Focus” did a interview with me about my life living with and battling Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and my incarceration and how Canada’s prisons are filled with those who have committed terrible crimes. But they are also filled with the mentally ill: those suffering from the effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Now some doctors are suggesting jail is not the right place to help the mentally ill. Research shows that those abnormalities often land FASD sufferers here, in prison. The reason. Alcohol injures the brain so much that many with FASD can’t tell the difference between right and wrong. One of Canada’s leading researchers, Dr. Christine Loock, estimates that at least one in every four inmates in federal institutions are behind bars, not because of a conscious crime, but because of FASD.
Jodee (January 16, 2009, 12:06 PM).
I am speaking to legal people in the USA in regards to persons with FASD – I will share your message – Thank you
Ric Iannolino (January 17, 2009, 2:27 PM).
I work with clients who experience FASD. Most of my clients have spent time in jail. The correction system in the US is struggling and failing my clients as in Canada.
What program sponsors the visitation program to provide support to adults with FASD?
Will anyone related to this video attend the 3rd International FASD Conference in Victoria, BC March 11-14, 2009?
I would like to meet with other of the same mind and experience if possible.
We know that an early diagnosis and a lifetime of support prevents secondary is abilities for people with FASD.
Jonathan (January 17, 2009, 6:29 PM).
Hello Ric
Thank you for your comment, I live with this FASD everyday and am always happy to help others in any way i am able. The only support i am aware of is on a personal level meaning someone from a FASD organization making a visitation which would be no more different then any other visit the inmate would receive. My support group here in Owen Sound Ontario do prison visitation with myself and Margaret Sprenger the support group coordinator. I can only speak on what we do here i am not aware of any other support structure for inmates with FASD. Perhaps contacting a FASD organization in Alaska would be your best bet for finding a contact whom is well knowledgeable about FASD to make such a visit if possible.
I hope this helps
Feel free to contact at any time.
Jonathan
Paulette Tremblay (October 25, 2009, 12:19 AM).
Hello,
My mother drank the occasional drink while pregnant. She had 5 children. When she was little she drank lye accidentally at the age of 5 years. She had to have throat treatments to stretch her throat. She lived on liquid diet. Aspirin had to be crushed between 2 spoons or else she would have to go to the hospital. She grew up and had us 5 kids and she told me this past Christmas that she did drink when she was pregnant. Not lots but occasionally. Enough though, that I have had problems all my life in school. Grade 3 they failed me. I struggled with problem solving when I’d read and still do. (I’m studying FASD through Distance Learning from Lethbridge Community College I will get my certificate and diploma in about 2 years. I take 2 courses a semester.) I work for Teegatha O’Zheh (www.teegathaohzheh.com) where those from institutions are integrated back into society. My courses have helped me where nothing else has. I have developed my own strategies on how to deal with FAE. My diagnosis is forthcoming hopefully before this Christmas in 2009.
Trying to find out what has been wrong with me has been very hard. I’d keep saying, “Why won’t my brain let me do and understand what I need to?” Why does it feel like I’m on the inside of a balloon at times? Why do I feel like the back side of a tapestry that has knots? It should really be the same on both sides when done correctly! If I have a coffee from Tim Horton’s! It makes me feel like I’m going a 100 miles an hour and I’m just standing there.
So what’s next?
FASSY (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Society) They will be helping me with their team that comes to the Yukon to help those needing testing for FASD and FAE, etc. I am #7 on their list of 10 people they help a year.
Learning Disabilities Association Yukon (LDAY) helped me in 1995. A Dr. Norman Brodie tested me but not about FASD. I had many tests that day. We did not know of my mother drinking alcohol then. Only found out in 2008 after Christmas when I took FASD from Yukon College. Lightbulbs started to light up inside my head and it hurt and it made me happy at the same time. I was finding answers. Now I want to know. It hurts my husband and my children. The behaviors, like Mt. St Helen’s when you don’t know how to control your anger. Tears, many tears when frustrated. Someone will ream you out in front of another employee and you stay mad and hurt for a long time. You hang onto the emotion, you can’t shake it off. Then you talk to that person and say how you felt. Then I’d say, “I won’t hold this against you, Jesus is bigger than all of this and that is what he’d like me to do because He did this for me.”
That is only how I am able to deal with all of this big mess.
I have more confidence. My self esteem is on the charts now. I had none in 1995. I am growing and will continue to grow. I feel now like I’m in school, working at my job where my 2 clients and others I sometimes interact with, teach me how to let go of emotional baggage. (I really hate it when I can’t shake it! It just eats at me, and I can stay peeved off for days until I eventually deal with it. If I talk it out I found out the triggers. Oh there is so much more to tell but I’ll share another time.
I type on my computer because it’s faster. Writing, I like to do the alphabet. Don’t learn speed writing! It wrecks your handwriting!
I am married, have 4 grown children, 3 boys 1 daughter, and 1 grand daughter. My husband is the editorial/Political cartoonist at the Yukon News and is also layout/design. He has won many awards. http://www.wyattsworld.ca
Life has not been easy for him. At times he says it’s like raising the fifth child. Diane Malbin suggested I write an autobiography. Bonnie Buxton the same. In time I will. The starting point is what is hard but I will do it.
Take care until next time I write.
Paulette Tremblay