Invisible disability

A Vancouver-based lawyer says more people suffer from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Canada than people would like to admit.

Alcohol-related disorders are a burden on Canada’s justice system, a Vancouver-based lawyer said Wednesday.

David Boulding, a criminal and family lawyer from Vancouver, held a news conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Wednesday morning at the Airlane Travelodge in Thunder Bay. FASD covers all areas of alcohol disorders including the more commonly known Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Affect.

Children often develop the disorder when the mother consumes alcohol during pregnancy. The alcohol acts as a solvent and interferes with the baby’s development of the brain.

"It is the single biggest problem in the legal system today," Boulding said. "Most of the people in prison have a brain injury related to alcohol. Those people use up a lot of our social services, police time and school board time."

People with the disorder often go undiagnosed. Boulding said people suffering from FASD are largely invisible to the general public and often find themselves with a jail sentence because of their impulsive behaviours.

Boulding wrote a paper called Mistakes I Have Made with FAS Clients. In the paper he admitted that he treated his FAS clients just as he would treat people who did not have the disorder. He eventually realized that his clients were not learning from past mistakes and continued to repeat the same crimes in the same fashion.

"Every lawyer has some responsibility when his client commits his second crime because you didn’t do your job right," he said. "Every judge who sees a kid come back for a second time is responsible – in part—for that second crime."

Signs related to FASD can include odd behaviour, not understanding basic concepts, attention problems and memory problems. Boulding said in rare cases people develop facial distortions from FASD, but it happens to only two or three per cent of all FASD patients.

"This is a problem for human beings," he said. "Alcohol is a drug of our civilization and the people with the money buy most of the alcohol. People with the money don’t want their children diagnosed with fetal alcohol so they go to a psychiatrist and get another name their happy with; anti-social personality and attention deficient disorder."

"The thing with the word fetal alcohol is it tells what the problem is; mom was drinking."

Karen Baker, a youth probation officer with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services in Thunder Bay, said about 30 per cent of the children who are at the facility have FASD. She attended the conference and was glad that more people were becoming outspoken about the disorder, she said.

Baker said he remains consistent when dealing with the youth to ensure they meet their appointments on time, be compassionate and to understand their disability but she knows that these youth constantly get in trouble with the justice system, she said.

"I work with fetal alcohol youth everyday all day," Baker said. "I think it is about time people hear how it affects the justice system. What often happens in the teen years is parents and caregivers begin to give them more freedom. The more freedom they give them the worse off they are."