Dear providers of therapeutic services for care experienced individuals and families.
We are a group of academics and clinicians based at the University of Salford, with a keen interest in foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) – a neurodevelopmental condition cause by prenatal alcohol exposure.
UK and international research shows that up to one third of care-experienced individuals may be affected by FASD, the majority of whom will not have received a diagnosis.
Due to the high levels of early life adversity in the care experienced population, services in recent decades have rightfully been built around a trauma and attachment model. However, families affected by FASD report that these services are less effective than they had hoped.
Clinical data shows that prenatal alcohol exposure is an important factor in determining many neurological, cognitive, and mental health outcomes, beyond the contribution of early life adversity.
To put this another way, when an individual has both prenatal alcohol exposure and early life adversity, any approach to intervention and support that overlooks the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure will not be as useful as it could be.
If prenatal exposures including alcohol are acknowledged alongside existing models of early life adversity, we can make significant improvements in predicting the development and needs of these individuals, and put more effective early interventions in place from a young age, leading to improved outcomes.
We are in the process of developing a therapeutic package for care-experienced children with prenatal alcohol exposure (leading to either diagnosed or suspected FASD) and a history of early life adversity.
But we need your help.
Please consider helping us by clicking the link below to our very brief survey which should take less than five minutes to complete (depending on how much detail you choose to provide), and consider sharing this link with any relevant contacts.
Depending on your answers, we may invite you to provide a contact email address so that we can discuss your work, and with your permission, we may invite you to take part in a further study in the future.
Please click here to take part in our survey
If you have any questions, please email Dr Alan Price at a.d.price3@salford.ac.uk