WINNIPEG, Man. — As the impact of fetal alcohol disorders on Canadian society becomes clearer, MCC is exploring ways to help churches, families and individuals deal with issue.

Victims of fetal alcohol disorders are people whose mothers have ingested alcohol at some time during their pregnancy.

Approximately three in every thousand births in North America are affected by fetal alcohol syndrome—a kind of fetal alcohol disorder, according to experts at a workshop on the subject organized by MCC Manitoba in mid-March. More people deal with similar but less pronounced changes to their personality called fetal alcohol effects. Between 30 - 50 infants per 1,000 births are diagnosed with having fetal alcohol effects.

"Alcohol is a solvent. It can literally dissolve brain tissue and that can mean inconsistent growth in the brain of the unborn fetus," said Dorothy Schwab at the workshop. Schwab is an occupational therapist and a community liaison worker for alcohol and drug-exposed children at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.

"It causes a wide variation in intellectual ability. It affects everything from the ability to learn to knowing how to act appropriately in a social setting. This is not something which victims recover from. It is a permanent condition."

People with a fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects can suffer both "primary" and "secondary" disabilities. Primary disabilities—like slower cognitive processes, memory problems and the inability to understand consequences— are categorized as those disabilities that a child is born with. They are a direct result of damage done to the brain by alcohol.

Secondary disabilities—like poor self esteem, anxiety and aggression —are personality traits that develop over time when there is a poor "fit" between the individual and the environment he or she lives in. Secondary behavioral characteristics are the result of individuals creating defensive behaviours to help them cope, says Schwab.

Schwab says children with a fetal alcohol disorder are blameless for their condition and will always need an "external brain" (someone to support them) to help them deal with daily life. She says there is no standard approach to dealing with victims of fetal alcohol disorders because of the wide range of differences between victim symptoms. She adds there are relatively few resources available to help care-givers dealing with the problem.

MCC Canada has developed a pamphlet on fetal alcohol disorders titled "Come Walk with Me-A Christian response to fetal alcohol-related disabilities" for individuals and church and community groups. MCC Manitoba is currently exploring program ideas related to fetal alcohol disorders.

Even though some fetal alcohol disorders have been officially diagnosed since the early 1970s, some physicians still refuse to acknowledge the connection between behavioral difficulties in children and alcohol consumption. Most often, these physicians attribute behavioral problems to parents or the child's environment.

"There's no cookbook approach. This is a syndrome and each child is different. Each one comes from a different set of circumstances and different home environment. It's no fault of their own that there is a breakdown in understanding," said Schwab.

Ike and Barb Brown (not their real names) have four children, three of which are adopted. Given the struggles they as a family have had to deal with, they strongly suspect that two of their adopted children have fetal alcohol effects.

"We have sought and received a tremendous amount of professional help but it wasn't what our kids needed," says Barb. "The years have been very difficult."

She says counselors helped them establish a system of consequences to help respond to their children's behaviour but she notes that their children never "caught on". Following continued incidents of theft and violence their son moved out and into a foster home. In the following years, their daughter was suspended from school and moved out as well.

"Our son looked like an 18-year-old but he had the comprehension of someone much younger than that. Our daughter wanted independence but she was unable to keep a job," she says.

Schwab says parents dealing with fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects children need to take a different approach to parenting. She says the solution begins with changing the environment to meet the needs of the person with the condition.

"This means that when behaviour and learning doesn't improve, don't try harder, try different."

Schwab says there is an increasing volume of material that is becoming available as more parents and care-givers gather to share their stories and struggles in dealing with their children.

She says intervention includes allowing the affected individual to be part of the process, adapting to individual needs, providing concrete, rather than abstract concepts and creating structure, predictability, routine and rituals.

"Accept that it is possible that things aren't working because the steps aren't small enough. There's too much information and too much stimuli. Don't think that the situation is hopeless. When you find positive results, don't back off, keep going."