Author: djgilbert

SalfordFASD welcomes Human Genetics expert Dr Arijit Mukhopadhyay to the team to help us tackle important research on the detection of prenatal alcohol exposure.  

The identification of FASD is limited by an inability to confirm alcohol exposure during the pregnancy. By the time a child is experiencing significant difficulties, often when they are in upper primary / lower secondary education, it can be difficult to get information on maternal drinking, especially if the child no longer lives with their birth family.

Professor Raja Mukherjee, Consultant Psychiatrist at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Honorary Professor at the University of Salford, and SalfordFASD member has been awarded an MBE for services to people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

The agenda for the forthcoming SalfordFASD conference is now published. The conference is to be held on the 30th March, 2023 with the theme FASD in the UK: Building on 20years of progress. Tickets for the conference can be gotten here.

The conference agenda can be viewed here.

It is a new year with another round of good news for the SalfordFASD team.

According to Expertscape, an organisation which rates individuals or institution according to expertise in a specific biomedical subject, the SalfordFASD group (based at the University of Salford) has been rated as the group with the most expertise on FASD in the UK. Expertscape provides ratings on expertise based on country-wise, regional, city-wide, institutional and individual contributions to the advancement of knowledge in biomedical disciplines. The link to this ranking can be found here: https://expertscape.com/ex/fasd/c/uk

The much-awaited 6^th European FASD conference was held in Arendal, Norway from the 12^th to 14^th September, after two years of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly all continents were represented in this conference with over 20 plenary sessions and over 50 parallel sessions. Several organisations and researchers were present to deliver sessions on the progress of their work in advancing knowledge/awareness about FASD in their respective countries.

Amongst the countries represented, there was the remarkable presence of UK researchers and FASD-focused organisations. See picture!

We are most pleased to announce that a member of our research team has been promoted to ‘Professor of Forensic Psychology’. This is the second professorial appointment in one year from our research team!

Today, and with so much excitement, we are happy to announce that one of our researchers has gotten a new appointment. Nicola Hickman is now the Assistant Service Lead at Nudge Education’s FASD and Complex Case Service. Nudge Education is an educational service which helps schools and Local Authorities support those students who are at-risk or have already become chronically disengaged, to help them rediscover a life worth living.

This month, we warmly welcome another member to the SalfordFASD research team – Ruth Morrello!

Ruth is a community midwife who works in central Manchester who has recently carried out a Masters in Public Health at the University of Salford. As a midwife, a large part of her role involves giving health advice to pregnant women to optimise maternal and infant wellbeing. As part of her Masters, she was keen to take up the opportunity to research the prevention of FASD, as she felt that was a key activity for a midwife to be involved in. As part of her master’s dissertation, Ruth worked with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership to evaluate their ‘Reducing Alcohol Exposed Pregnancy (AEP) Programme’ on midwifery practice. The preventing AEP programme was a suite of activities that had been trialled in two NHS Foundation Trust geographic areas. Ruth’s research explored the effect of the programme on midwifery practice in the intervention areas. 

As we enter February, it is slightly late to post reviews of the previous year. However, it was an eventful year, and we feel that it is worth reflecting on some of the achievements. We have made significant progress as a research team over the last year. There are several things to be proud of: