Register now for our webinar, Refreshing our Conversations About Alcohol as a Key Component for FASD Prevention. This 60-minute webinar with Dr. Nancy Poole and Lindsay Wolfson will be held on September 25, 2020, at 11:30 am ET.

Reaching women in childbearing years and their support networks through respectful conversations about alcohol is key to FASD prevention. In Canada, we need to continue to grow our responses to substance use as binge drinking by women, the use of prescription pain medication, and emerging forms of cannabis and/or tobacco routes of administration. New research about the health effects of these substances for women, and ongoing advice from people with lived/living experience, prompt health and social care providers to continuously update their approaches to discussing alcohol and other substance use.

This webinar will build upon work by the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and the Canada FASD Research Network on trauma- and gender-informed brief intervention/support and will look closely at how we are integrating wise practice related to: stigma reduction, cultural safety, equity-informed approaches and combined responses on alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and opioids.

Key Takeaways:

• Identify existing and promising practices for discussing and providing information on alcohol, and screening for alcohol problems and making referrals to treatment (where necessary), in collaboration with women in the preconception and perinatal periods;
• Recognize opportunities to apply gender-, equity- and trauma-informed approaches to discussing and providing support related to alcohol and other substance use; and,
• Bring attention to the importance of continuing to discuss alcohol and help women prevent FASD, even as our attention is drawn to emerging cannabis, opioids and tobacco strategies.

Nancy Poole, PhD, is the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health a virtual NGO research centre hosted by BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre. She is also the Prevention Lead for the CanFASD Research Network, guiding a national network of researchers, service providers, policy analysts and community-based advocates working on FASD prevention. Nancy is currently collaborating on research and knowledge translation projects in Canada and internationally, that are related to alcohol, other substance use, trauma-informed approaches and Indigenous wellness.

Lindsay Wolfson, MPH, is a Researcher at the Canada FASD Research Network and Manager at the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health. She holds a Master of Public Health, Social Inequities and Health, from Simon Fraser University. Lindsay is responsible for research and collaboration on projects relating to Indigenous health and wellness, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder prevention, and the integration of gender, trauma, culture, and equity-informed approaches into policy, research, and practice.