A Nipawin woman is hoping to jumpstart a support group for caregivers of people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Alvina Melenchenko has two granddaughters with the disorder. When she first gained custody of the girls, she didn’t know they had FASD.
“The first year, I didn’t know,” she told the Review. “I couldn’t figure out why they screamed for no reason, plugged their ears.”
FASD includes physical, mental or behavioural effects that can occur in someone whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. Melenchenko eventually learned that bright lights, loud noises and big crowds could set off her granddaughters. But she found she needed more support.
“I was feeling like I didn’t have anybody. I didn’t know what was happening, it was so overwhelming.”
So Melenchenko reached out to the FASD Network of Saskatchewan, which is based in Saskatoon. She received training from them and is now ready to bring a support group to Nipawin.
“I know there are lots of caregivers out there who think they’re alone,” she said.
“The support groups are open to any caregivers or a family of caregivers. Basically what we’re doing is talking, and anything that’s discussed at the meetings, stays at the meetings.”
Melenchenko has already learned a lot about FASD and is working with her granddaughters’ school.
“[They have] small things like sensory tools. They will lash out, they will pinch, they will bite, they will scream. Anything to chew on or anything to bring them down, away from that sensory overload.”
And she’s changed how she communicates.
“You’ve got to be short and direct. So if you say, ‘if you don’t hurry, we’re not going to the park’, all they hear is, ‘we’re not going to the park.’”
The first caregiver support meeting was scheduled for Feb. 8.
