Thank you.
When Bill C-583 is approved, requests for appropriate assessments need to be made by the court. An assessment for FASD should be requested and it should follow the Canadian Medical Association diagnostic guidelines. These guidelines suggest that a multidisciplinary team assess all abilities or concerns for the individual with an adaptive functioning focus versus a strictly psychological analysis. A stand-alone, general, psychological assessment is not as useful and may in fact be harmful because it doesn’t reflect actual brain damage and impact on functioning.
There is a great deal of co-morbidity with mental health issues, but the mental health issues need to be considered in relation to the underlying permanent brain damage caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. Some of the mental health issues may be occurring because the underlying FASD had not been diagnosed earlier in the life of the person.
An FASD assessment, following the collaborative approach recommended by the CMA, could as well recognize or rule out genetic issues and consider the effect of other traumas an individual may have encountered that may be affecting his or her abilities. If all aspects of the judicial system, from investigation, decision to charge, pre-sentence, court, sentencing, disposition and conditions, incarcerations and reintegration, understand the impact of FASD on a person, effective help and support can be offered. A person may succeed in not being involved in further justice issues, or at least minimize the need of involvement, if appropriate dispositions can be made.
As one of our clients has said about trying to stay out of the justice system, “I know I make a lot of bad choices so I need you to help me not make so many.” Having a diagnosis also helps individuals learn where their strengths are and where they need help to keep themselves out of trouble. One young fellow I am aware of who has a history of sexual touching of children, now knows that he cannot be where children are because he struggles to control this impulse, so he intentionally stays away from areas where children will be.
We as a society need to get over our feelings of loss and grief for what the potential of the person could have been and get on with accepting the person for who they are. Dr. Sterling Clarren has frequently said that people with FASD are doing what they were designed to do and we need to adapt our behaviour towards them. Collaboration between FASD-informed services and FASD-aware service providers will be the only way that a person who has this disability can move through life. Interventions must begin with nonjudgmental, unbiased observations.
People with FASD need the understanding, caring, and support from all levels of service providers. A story of a court interaction that I was privy to demonstrates how knowledge of FASD can be used for collaboration of service. There was a judge addressing a client known to the court to have FASD and listing off the requirements of probation for that person, with an appropriate language level and at an appropriate rate of talking. The client was intently listening and nodding his head as the judge talked. The judge finished and then asked the person if he understood. The client, who understood some of his own limitations, said, “Yes, Judge, I understand, but I won’t remember.” The judge was quick to point out that was why his FASSY worker would go over the probation orders with him daily.
This story, I feel, is significant in that the judge recognized and acknowledged, by his actions, the disability of the offender; the offender recognized as part of his disability that which would make it impossible for him to do what the judge was asking; and both recognized the need for support to continue outside the courtroom.
We're learning that people with FASD, with supports, can live clean, sober, and lawful lives and contribute to their own families, communities and society. By making this important amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code through Bill C-583, Canadians will keep the most vulnerable people of our country from further harm or from causing harm to others, and the judicial system will get to the root of the challenging behaviours that impact victims, families, communities, and our society.
Thank you for your time.