Justice committee  Actually I share everybody's angst and concern. I spend a lot of time trying to look at the brain profile in preschool children who are prenatally exposed to alcohol. I may not necessarily give them a full diagnosis, but I get a pretty good sense of what they need in terms of services and supports.

Justice committee  Thank you. I introduced myself as a developmental pediatrician. Developmental pediatricians are trained to look at neurodevelopmental disorders, and in fact in very young children and infants we can see some of the early signs of affect dysregulation. That is one difference between the professional distinctions.

Justice committee  Maybe I can answer a little bit of this. I would say that fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is much broader than a mental health disorder, because it impacts communication and all of those other brain functions. It is often comorbid with an anxiety diagnosis or a diagnosed depression or disruptive mood disorder, but FASD is much bigger than anxiety itself.

Justice committee  I'm all in support of awareness prevention campaigns through posters, coasters, or whatever it takes, but there have been really good studies that show awareness of the harmfulness of drinking during pregnancy does not necessarily change the behaviour. The stories of my birth mothers are horrendous.

Justice committee  Yes. I've been very fortunate to work with the Yukon government on this particular project. There is a project within the jail itself to provide diagnostic assessment of individuals. It's not mandatory so we do get their consent. We're looking at actually validating some screening tools that could potentially be very useful across all of the justice systems to identify individuals who may have an FASD.

Justice committee  Yes. Dr. Cook can also join in, as Dr. Cook is one of the leaders in the development of the revision of the Canadian guidelines for FASD assessment, although the guidelines are being developed with extensive consultation with experts across Canada, the United States, and internationally.

Justice committee  In my clinic we see the individual over about a day and a half, and then the diagnosis is formulated in the other half-day and a full report is generated. It's two days for an adolescent or a child. The adult has different challenges, because if they are homeless, we have to find them, feed them, give them a mentor.

Justice committee  I think you're right on all those points. For example, in Alberta we have 24 diagnostic clinics. Most of them are funded through the province. The individuals who are seeking assessment do not have to pay. It's covered through our health services. There are a few private centres where you would have to pay privately.

Justice committee  I have to preface this by saying I am a medical doctor and not a lawyer. I actually had an opportunity to speak with Professor Steven Penney, a professor at the faculty of law, University of Alberta, to give me the Reader's Digest condensed versions of section 16. Certainly our individuals with FASD would qualify for mental disorder.

Justice committee  Thank you very much for having me today. I'm a clinician, researcher, and I also do a lot of education and training around fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities, as I am a developmental pediatrician. What I'm going to talk about to you today is more from that clinical, medical, diagnostic perspective.