Fetal alcohol syndrome topic of three-day workshop

Nearly 75 people will gather at the State Library & Archives today for a three-day workshop on fetal alcohol syndrome.

Susan Doctor, Ph.D., will conduct the workshop. The former Reno middle school counselor is one of a handful of professionals conducting workshops on the effects of alcohol and other substances on children before they are born.

"One of the difficult things about treatment for women that's different from men is that women have to take care of the children," she said. "Women don't want to give up their children to foster care, so they are reluctant to admit a problem."

It is not enough to treat drug and alcohol abuse without dealing with the underlying problems, she said.

"Addiction is a disease affected by cultural and psychological problems," she said. "It is important that people don't punish it, they treat it for maximum outcome."

Doctor started discussing fetal alcohol syndrome when she read "The Broken Cord" written by Modoc Indian Michael Dorris in 1989.

"It was the first time fetal alcohol syndrome became common knowledge," she said. "I could see these kids dancing in front of my eyes as I'm reading the book. I went to do more research on the topic, but you really can't. I teach one of a handful of classes on this topic."

One problem is that social workers and caregivers rarely know when they are dealing with someone with fetal alcohol syndrome. She started studying the syndrome about the same time as the crack baby media blitz in the early '90s.

"They wouldn't have a glimmer that they were looking at something different," she said. "There is not enough education out there about it. People don't know how to deal with it."

Doctor is a Sparks resident who moved to Nevada in 1969. She worked in the Washoe County School District as a counselor and coordinator of the district's drug and alcohol abuse program.

She lectures all over the country and went to Canada and Australia to discuss her topic.

"But I insist that I have time to work with it directly," she said. "I don't just want to have book learning. I'm involved in the interventions. How am I going to teach it, if I'm not involved in the process?"

Doctor received her doctorate in education in 2000 from the University of Nevada, Reno.

"My emphasis was fetal alcohol syndrome," she said. "I was really trained by the pioneers in the field."

The effects of drugs and alcohol can't be predicted, so Doctor says abstinence is the only way to insure a safe pregnancy.

"There is no safe time and no safe amount," she said.

The three-day conference is hosted by Court Appointed Special Advocates of Carson City and Douglas County, the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services, the Nevada Training Partnership and the UNR School of Social Work. Funding for the workshop is through the Task Forces for the Fund for a Healthy Nevada, Soroptimist International of Carson City and the Children's Trust Fund.

Contact Kurt Hildebrand at hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.