How Personal Perspectives Shape Health Professionals’ Perceptions of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Risk

Abstract

This article examines how health, allied health and social service professionals’ personal perspectives about alcohol and the risks associated with alcohol consumption become non-clinical factors that may influence their professional practice responses in relation to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). It presents findings derived from a qualitative, interview-based study of professionals from a range of health, allied health and social service professions in New Zealand. The data derived from these interviews revealed four frames of reference that practitioners use when thinking about alcohol and risk: reflection on personal experience; experiences of friends, relatives and colleagues; social constructions of alcohol use and misuse; and comparisons to other types of drug use. The article concludes that these non-clinical factors are important considerations in professional decision making about FASD.

Exploring the experiences of social workers in working with children suspected to have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

“…Finally, this study also found many cases of combined substance misuse among parents of children suspected with FASD, similar to the research by Bagley and Badry (2019). The combined impact of substance misuse and adverse socio-environment act in concert to complicate the chances of obtaining a FASD diagnosis.…”

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Fixing Our Aim to Aim for the Fix

“…We, as editors of this special issue on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), are proud to present eleven papers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. These studies focused on prevention, systems development, clinical practice, and public policy.…”

Examining the representations of social actors in FASD prevention campaigns

“…On a professional level, having conversations about alcohol use during pregnancy with friends and clients is often difficult to navigate. When having these conversations, professionals will often draw upon their own personal experiences and social/relational perspectives to bridge the conversation with their clients (Bagley & Badry, 2019). Professionals needing to bridge conversations using their own experience could be because there is no mandatory training or best practices in relation to FASD in the human service setting, and/or because a practitioner has their own experiences outside of the profession that shapes their responses to it (Bagley & Badry, 2019).…”

“…When having these conversations, professionals will often draw upon their own personal experiences and social/relational perspectives to bridge the conversation with their clients (Bagley & Badry, 2019). Professionals needing to bridge conversations using their own experience could be because there is no mandatory training or best practices in relation to FASD in the human service setting, and/or because a practitioner has their own experiences outside of the profession that shapes their responses to it (Bagley & Badry, 2019). Relating non-clinical experiences in a clinical setting is not inherently a bad thing, however a medical professional's bias and attitudes towards who is seen to be "at risk" for having FASD can have serious implications for whom they deem fits the criteria for an FASD assessment (Bagley, 2019).…”