Challenges for School Children of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
February 2, 2016
Hosted by Dr. Gordon Atherley
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Guest Information
Episode Description
Mark Courtepatte is co-chair of the Hamilton and Area Parent and Caregiver FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders) Support Group, http://www.hamiltonfasdsupport.ca/, and one of the organizing members of the Youth and Sibling FASD Support Group. He describes his work, the experiences of FASD that his work has created for him, and the Groups’ support that’s provided to school children, and their families and family caregivers. He discusses the challenges created by FASD for children beginning their lives as school children, changing from children into teenagers, and completing school and moving on to adult life. He explains the ways in which support helps school children, their families and their family caregivers overcome the challenges. He says what more he wants to do and to see done, and by whom, to promote support for elementary and high-school children living with FASD, and for their families and their family caregivers.
Family Caregivers Unite!
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Family caregivers are the people who provide care to partners, parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbors and even co-workers. They are the people who provide care when everyone else has gone home. They are the people who organize the functioning of the home for the person with special needs, and for the family as a whole. They are the coordinators of care, the managers of appointments, the preventers of loneliness, and the makers of decisions even to the point of Power of Attorney. And they are so often people who themselves are burdened with their own health challenges and who may be in only marginally better health than the persons to whom they are providing family caregiving.
Dr. Gordon Atherley
Dr Gordon Atherley holds the British equivalent of the Canadian PhD and MD degrees, and LLD, Honoris Causa, from Canada’s Simon Fraser University. His awards include Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK. His medical specialties are occupational medicine and public health.
As first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian equivalent of the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, he led the creation of Canada’s electronic information service in occupational health and safety, now used in more than 40 countries.
In academia, he held senior, tenured, full-time positions, including departmental chair, in university faculties of physics, engineering, and medicine. He is the author of a textbook and numerous articles and publications.
Since retiring from medical practice, he’s built up Greyhead Associates, which critically researches the safety, effectiveness and fairness of health services for persons with special needs.
Through Virtual Care International, a company of which he’s President, he’s involved in providing sensible technology to family caregivers to help them with their responsibilities, workloads, and concerns.
Now an activist, he urges family caregivers to unite because, more and more, it’s not just their families who depend on them, it’s also the healthcare system as a whole, as it struggles to meet more and more needs of more and more people.
Episode Directory
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
- 2/23/2016: How Class Action Lawsuits are Organized Listen Now
- 2/16/2016: Adoption Beyond Infancy Listen Now
- 2/9/2016: UnitedHealthcare Resources for Family Caregivers caring for Aging or Disabled Family Members Listen Now
- 2/2/2016: Challenges for School Children of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Listen Now
