American Indians Address Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Minnesota Public Radio on Monday as part of a six-partseries on fetal alcohol syndrome examined how the condition affectsAmerican Indians in the state. According to CDCstudies, the fetal alcohol rate among American Indians is 30 timeshigher than the rate among whites. The syndrome affects 40,000 infantsin the U.S. each year, MPR reports.

Sandra Parsons, director ofFamily and Children's Services for the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe innorthern Minnesota, said, "I would say it's very definitely a problem,almost pervasive. I haven't found anybody yet who disputes that. Ithink people would be literally amazed at how prevalent it might be."She added, "It's kind of one of those 'don't talk about it, don'texist' pieces. But if we are damaging our kids in those kind ofnumbers, somebody needs to talk about it. Somebody needs to be lookingat what is the reality."

Some Minnesota tribal officials sayfetal alcohol syndrome is linked to a high number of children withlearning disabilities and higher drop out and prison rates on Indianreservations. Parsons said while she also believes there is aconnection between fetal alcohol damage and social and behavioralproblems among American Indian children, there is little scientificevidence to support such claims. Her group worked with more than 900children last year, and many of them had behavior problems that Parsonsthinks might be related to fetal alcohol syndrome.

Very fewAmerican Indian children at Red Lake are diagnosed with fetal alcoholdamage, which requires involvement of specialists and diagnosticservices that mostly are unavailable on reservations, according to MPR.

ManyAmerican Indian women are aware of the risks related to alcoholconsumption during pregnancy, and some stop drinking when they find outthey are pregnant. Mary May, a fetal alcohol abuse specialist at Leech Lake Health Division,said, "Even though we have educational efforts, I still think [pregnantAmerican Indian women] take their cues from their family, from thesociety they're living in." She added, "[I]t may be one thing to sayyou know alcohol damages a fetus. But if everybody is drinking aroundyou and you want to be a part of that unit, then I think that inclusionis going to be a higher need. I think there's just an incredible levelof denial about alcohol affecting babies, and I'm not sure how youbreak through that denial."

May also said, "Women tell me thatif they're drinking, they don't get prenatal care because they'll beconfronted by the facts that alcohol does affect their fetus. And theyjust don't want to deal with the hassle of it."

Some fetal alcohol syndrome services are available, such as a diagnostic clinic at the University of Minnesota and mental health services and educational courses at reservation clinics. In addition, the White Earth Reservationrecently received a five-year state grant to address prenatal alcoholexposure and will establish a reservation-based diagnostic clinic bythe end of the year. However, such efforts "are expensive," and it is"unclear what happens when the money runs out," according to MPR (Robertson, MPR, 10/22).

Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view theentire Kaiser WeeklyHealth Disparities Report,search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email. The Kaiser Weekly HealthDisparities Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of TheHenry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.