BC Representative for Children and Youth – released a report “Excluded: Increasing Understanding, Support and Inclusion for Children with FASD and their Families” that recommends that the provincial government should take both immediate and long-term action to improve supports and services to children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and their families. 

Children with suspected or confirmed FASD should immediately be made eligible for the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s (MCFD) Family Support Services for Children and Youth with Special Needs (CYSN), based on functional need, thereby allowing these children and their families access to services that are available to those with other specific neuro-developmental conditions, said Representative Jennifer Charlesworth.

Among the report’s key findings is that structural racism appears to lead to assumptions that can influence referral processes for assessment of FASD. Clinicians and service providers involved in those processes described a noticeable trend of Indigenous children being referred for FASD assessments, while non-Indigenous children presenting in a similar manner are more commonly referred for other assessments

The report has 11 specific recommendations.

https://rcybc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RCY-FASD_Report-Apr2021_FINAL_highres.pdf