Creating a Circle of Hope for Women and their Families Living with Addiction, Stigma, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

This session will focus on how addiction can impact a woman’s health, family, children, and their unborn babies. Research on lifelong cognitive, neurological, and behavioral disorders related to prenatal alcohol exposure will be reviewed. Additionally, research on stigma towards mothers of children that used during their pregnancy will be summarized. Women with this lived experience face on-going stigma and bias, loss of their children, and debilitating shame that can place them at high risk for relapse. The focus of the session will be on how education on both addiction and recovery transforms systems of care to reframe both expectations and interventions to improve outcomes for women and their families. Participants will learn about resources for women and their families.

Participants will be able to:

• List 3 common cognitive or behavioral deficits experienced by people living with an FASD.
• Define stigma and list one way it is currently acted out by society or systems of care towards women and mothers living with AUD/SUD.
• Discuss resiliency traits in women and families living with addictions or FASD.
• Describe resources for women and families living with FASD.

Two CEs ($10) available through CEBrokers for Florida LMHC, LMFT, LCSW, and Certified Master Social Worker.

PRESENTER:

Kathleen Mitchell, MHS, LCADC

Kathleen T. Mitchell, MHS, LCADC, is Senior Vice President of FASD Prevention and Recovery Services, FASD United. She served as Vice President and Spokesperson for FASD United (formerly the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome-NOFAS) for 24 years. She holds a Master of Human Services (MHS) degree and is a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor (LCADC). Ms. Mitchell served as principal investigator (PI) and project officer for government projects that aimed to prevent FASD, reduce stigma, and support families and individuals living with FASD. She taught at Georgetown and Northwestern University Medical

Schools and served on the special committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) developing guidelines for the identification and management of substance use disorders in pregnancy. In 2004, she founded the international birth mother mentorship program, the Circle of Hope (COH) and in 2020, founded Recovering Mothers Anonymous (RMA). She is a noted invited speaker on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), Women and Addiction and Stigma and has presented for over three decades both nationally and globally. In 1990, Ms. Mitchell testified to Congress at the first hearing on FAS/FAE and in 1992 and 1994 she

testified at hearings that later resulted in warning labels on all alcohol products. She has served as an expert to advise media and has been featured in documentaries, television, and news stories, including National Public Radio, NBC’s Later Today Show, BBC Radio, Washington Post, and other. She authored or co-authored twenty-three published papers, and authored handbooks, chapters, and curricula. Ms. Mitchell continues to speak at conferences and provide training and supports the COH speakers bureau that partners with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in speaking at grand rounds at medical facilities across the U.S.