Page 1724 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
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FASD and contact with the youth justice system, it is essential that young detainees be screened for foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Management of FASD is most effective when diagnosed as early as possible. Our young people at Bimberi are particularly vulnerable and belong to a population that is at high risk of suffering from undiagnosed FASD. A positive diagnosis will help explain certain behaviours and capabilities, which can then be followed up with a plan to manage a detainee’s condition and, in turn, help him or her to live a better life.
Madam Deputy Speaker, today I ask this Assembly to call on the ACT government to do four things. The first is to assess and screen our young people in Bimberi for FASD, in full accordance with the Australian guide to the diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and then to use results from such screening to help develop truly individualised case management plans. In doing so, the ACT will become a world leader in this area. According to the recent report in the British Medical Journal, the Banksia Hill study was the first of its kind in Australia. Other studies have been completed in Canada, where the prevalence of FASD in youth detention centres ranged from 11 per cent to 23 per cent. I have no way of knowing if similar numbers of young people in Bimberi will be found to have FASD, but the only way to find out is to assess them.
Second, I call upon the government to practise the robust collection and sharing of data relating to the FASD assessments and screening for our young people at Bimberi. As I mentioned earlier, we simply do not have enough data available to us yet, and this is another opportunity to lead the way in collecting and sharing this information.
Third, I call upon the ACT government to work with nationally recognised and accredited organisations to make sure that best practice is reflected at each stage of the process and in all aspects of the work undertaken. After all, as the blueprint for youth justice states, individualised support needs to be based on evidence and best practice.
Lastly, an important part of fully meeting the needs of young detainees found to have FASD is to guarantee that the youth workers and other staff who daily care for these kids have appropriate training. Some might suggest that this point goes without saying, but the importance of it is made clear by means of my amendment to my motion.
Madam Deputy Speaker, we have the resources. We have a national diagnostic and screening tool for FASD. We have evidence showing the lifelong impact of FASD on young people, especially when left undiagnosed, and about the strong presence of affected young people in youth detention or in other contact with the youth justice system. I have spoken in this chamber before on youth recidivism. This is one significant action we can take to seek to reduce youth recidivism.
We have existing services that can be trained and equipped to assess, diagnose and provide ongoing care and management of FASD for our young people in Bimberi. We have recommended screening tools such as AUDIT-C that our local hospitals can start using consistently to keep better records for alcohol use during pregnancy. We have
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