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There a low occurrence rate for both of them.
I think that the other thing that comes into it is when
we're starting to look at this and we're starting to look at the prevalence
numbers related to fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and suicide is
there has been a lot of work done on suicide and one of the things that they
talk about is they found is that 90 - 95% of suicide victims
That fits with what we probably think about suicide, is that you have a
mental health issue that leads to suicide.
But, most psychiatric patients don't commit suicide.
Which highlights the low base rate, it doesn't happen quite as often.
A previous suicide attempt is one of the best predictors of a future suicide attempt, or a suicide.
But, only 20-30%, of those who commit suicide, have made a previous suicide attempt.
So, again, it's providing some of the groundwork here.
So, the overlap.
What I'm going to be putting forward is that folks with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
....they have a number of neurodevelopmental deficits.
A number of problems with their brain that all impact problem solving, decision making,
our judgment, it impairs your judgment, our insight, our impulsivity,
our impulse control, our executive functioning.
We can talk a little bit about that here in just a second.
So, folks have these deficits and problems with their brain that
contribute to psycho-social problems, social problems,
and mental health problems at every developmental stage.
Amongst those, suicide is probably one of the significant and severe problems.
So, what is a primary neurodevelopmental disability?
If you've read a little bit, or heard about fetal alcohol syndrome, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders,
you might have heard the term primary disability, or secondary disability.
The neurodevelopmental disabilities, these are the primary disabilities.
There are the things that are as a direct result of the brain damage
that happens with drinking during pregnancy.
So you've got a range of possible areas:
The functioning; learning and memory problems;
visual spacial impairment;
And on this list,
just because it's here doesn't mean that someone who has prenatal alcohol exposure
has every single one of these.
Likewise, if you have some of these it is not necessarily a result of fetal alcohol effect.
I was teasing Sarah and Alex earlier. I was like, I actually thought this started at 6.
Up until about mid morning I thought it was 6 - 8. That was some of my memory problems there.
So you've got learning and memory problems;
visual spacial impairment;
language and communication problems;
executive functioning problems;
And in parenthesis I've got planning, sequencing, organizing, and abstract thinking.
Has everybody heard of executive functioning before?
I see some nods through most of the Anchorage group.
This is a real key one, actually,
you should keep in mind, and I will probably come back to it again, and again.
This is our brain's ability to make sense of the world around us.
This is the part of the brain that does our planning, and our sequencing.
That helps us make good decisions in many things.
Cognition, it's another area. Attention and concentration.
Motor control problems. Fine motor. Gross motor. Coordination, and balance.
Sensory integration issues. Have you folks heard of sensory integration problems?
Is there anybody who hasn't heard of sensory integration?
Okay, sensory integration is the ability of our brain to make sense out of all of our senses,
and how those interact with our motor abilities.
How many senses do we have?
I see 5, I hear 6.
Depending on your theories, I'm going to stick with 5 right now.
The 6th one is probably up for debate.
So what are they?
Let's go through the first 5 and then we'll talk about 6.
Sight. Hearing. Taste. Touch. Smell.
So, 5 different senses.
So, sensory integration, that's our brain trying to make sense of all of these different function areas.
So, right now, here in this room.
You’re having to deal with all 5 of these, also each of you in your settings in Fairbanks, and in Bethel.
What are you hearing?
Besides me going in and out of the microphone, and my monotone voice.
What else can you hear in this environment, besides the clicking of someone's pen,
the rustling of a paper,
you hear shoes moving on the floor,
clicking back there, maybe the projector,
the fan
So you've got this kind of hearing going on.
What can you see? How does your environment around you look?
Is it busy, a lot going on?
Is it plain?
Is it too bright? Too dark?
So we've got the hearing, and the sight.
How about touch? What are you feeling right now?
How's the temperature in the room? Is it too hot, or too cold?
Is it just right? Okay, that's an option.
How do your clothes feel right now? Are they scratchy?
Are you wearing your comfortable clothes?
In Anchorage I'm seeing heads shake, "no, not really."
Is it soft and fuzzy? Is it scratchy? Is it hard?
What other kinds of touch kinds of things?
Is your neighbor touching you right now?
Personal boundaries.
No touching your neighbors. Right?
So we've got touch to deal with. Okay, so another type of touch I don't think we realize
is texture in our mouths. I see some folks chewing gum.
What kind of texture? Now I see people smiling 'cause I just called them out on chewing gum.
What's that feel like in your mouth? Can you feel the gum? Is it real squishy gum?
Is it real dry gum? Is it sticky gum? Whatever the qualities of your gum are.
What's it taste like? Another area.
I came from a break right before I got up here.
I was chewing this killer, nuclear spearmint gum that's like, wow,
I can still feel it even though I got rid of it.
What are you tasting right now?
Are you tasting your dinner?
Did someone have too much garlic?
So you have all these kinds of sensation that's going on.
Then you've got this other thing that you’re trying to coordinate all those and you’re also
trying to figure out where your body is in the world around you.
It's called proprioception. Maybe your trying to move and coordinate your fingers and
write notes to someone.
So it can be a rough time to integrate all of these so that it makes sense and we can pay attention.
So sometimes, some of the brain damage that comes from fetal alcohol exposure,
sometimes folks get really over stimulated.
Sometimes they're really under stimulated.
That's what one of the challenging things about fetal alcohol exposure is
you can't exactly predict how that amount of alcohol is going to affect the...oops sorry about that...
cause some sort of damage. But yet, it's something we have to deal with.