Unique program to be featured

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One of the unique programs that will be featured at this year's Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) national conference to be held in Victoria from Feb. 24 to Feb. 26 is a camping program called Whitecrow Village, headquartered in Burns Lake.

Founded by Kee Warner, Whitecrow Village brings together families coping with FASD to share stories with professionals who attend the camp to learn more about how to deal with the disorder.

A typical day for participants at camp includes a large motor activity like hiking or horseback riding, craft-making activities and sports, and throughout the day frequent nutritious meals, said Warner.

"It started eight or nine years ago as a camp for kids, and we ran for three weeks and we did that for a couple of years. We realized the kids did really, really well, and that was in sharp contrast to when they went home and their families faced such difficulties all through the year and [then] we started bringing families."

The camps run for eight days in various places, from Alaska to the Yukon, and next year in Ireland. The camps are brought to communities so organizers can get a local team of professionals "wrapped around the families," said Warner.

"We realized that although [professionals] have academic training sometimes about fetal alcohol, nobody who hasn't seen it in action can really understand it enough to help."

What was found was that when social workers and doctors, birth parents and adoptive parents all came together at the camp they soon developed a common language that allowed them to work together and support each other throughout the year.

Warner said the biggest problems that families deal with FASD begin when they walk out the door and ask professionals for help.

"Cause they always want to give us the same old formulas that don't work with brain injury. They say things like, 'Well, have you tried a homework book,' or 'You have to make the consequences effective for your children.' Well, when our kids can't remember, when they can't store and retrieve information, it doesn't matter what kinds of consequences you set up."