Increasing Awareness and Understanding

The purpose of this goal of the Initiative is to build awareness and knowledge among women, families and the general population about the harms of alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD and its lifelong impact on individuals, families and communities.

Equally important is improving the understanding among professionals in health, education, justice, law enforcement, corrections, child welfare and social services of how alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD affects individuals and families.

This increased awareness and understanding is important in helping prevent FASD, in identifying those affected, referring them for appropriate diagnosis and after-care management.

For more information on this goal and associated strategies, check out the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): A Framework for Action.

An important Health Portfolio role is to increase knowledge and understanding on the impact of alcohol use during pregnancy among the public and professionals. To help with this, a number of public awareness related projects have been undertaken.

An environment scan of the public awareness activities in Canada was conducted. Details of selected public awareness campaigns, as well as tools to help create your own campaign, can be found in the report: What We Have Learned : Key Canadian FASD Awareness Campaigns.

The third of three reports (2006, 2002 and 2000) on public opinion concerning awareness of alcohol use during pregnancy, and FASD was conducted by Environics Research Group Limited through the Public Affairs, Consultation and Regions Branch of Health Canada. The report, Alcohol Use During Pregnancy and Awareness of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, 2006, provides a picture of awareness among men and women aged 18 - 40 from across Canada. For information concerning the data from these studies, please contact fasd-ncr@phac-aspc.gc.ca.

In order to plan professional awareness activities a survey of health care providers knowledge and attitudes regarding alcohol use during pregnancy and FASD was commissioned. The report, Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Professionals about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Results of a National Survey and a power point presentation of the data are both available.

In order to better understand and address the context of FASD messaging, including attitudes towards alcohol use by women. The FASD team, Division of Childhood and Adolescence, Centre for Healthy Human Development, Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) commissioned Corporate Research Associates Inc. (CRA) to undertake qualitative research . This research is intended to support social marketing that will improve the awareness of FASD and encourage behaviour change with respect to alcohol consumption among the public.