International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

With over 30 years of work in the field of child welfare, mental health and addictions, I got tired of seeing children and families fall between the cracks. Late in my career, I stumbled into the answer as to why so many professionals were not getting the outcomes they hoped for. Prenatal exposure to alcohol. Alcohol is a teratogen, affecting whatever is developing in the fetus at the time of exposure; in the brain, alcohol is a neurotoxin, causing permanent damage with lifelong effects, which vary from person to person. A primary challenge in identification and support of these individuals is the pervasive view that all behavior is deliberate, which is contrary to the neuroscientific evidence gathered in the past twenty years. When one’s cognitive challenges are unrecognized, and one is therefore chronically blamed, shamed and punished for behavior beyond their control, anxiety, depression and anger should be the expected outcome; normal defensive strategies result in mental health referrals, but typically these behaviors are targeted for change without consideration of what the individual is defending him/herself from.

Biography

Patricia Kasper, MA has served for over three decades in the fields of addictions (four years), mental health (four years) and child welfare (twentyfour years). She is an authorized TBRI Practitioner, a Certified Facilitator of FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model and a Certified Virtual Coach. She also has the experience of living with FASD. Her company, Patricia Kasper, MA, MTh, Training Services, LLC provides staff development training as well as coaching services, serving not only parents of children with brain-based differences but neurodivergent adults as well. Her area of specialty is FASD. She hosts a weekly podcast, Living with FASD and recently launched her first book, Sip by Sip: Candid Conversations with People Diagnosed as Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), which was acclaimed by Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones, who discovered FAS in 1973. Patti has a YouTube channel @Patricia Kasper Your FASD Coach.