FASD Action Plan Released On FASD Awareness Day 2025

This morning, at an online event hosted by FASD-CAN Inc, Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey launched the Government’s new Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Action Plan.

The three-year strategy focuses on preventing FASD, improving diagnosis and support, and strengthening services for affected families. The Minister acknowledged FASD-CAN and its dedicated mahi in Aotearoa in advocating, supporting, and training those with FASD, their whānau / families, as well as cross-sector professionals.

The FASD Action Plan sets intentions around prevention of FASD, improving support for individuals and families, and building a stronger workforce to respond more effectively. The plan includes targeted, community-based programmes for early assessment, diagnosis, and intervention and emphasises cross-sector collaboration across health, social services, education and justice. There is a commitment to review the plan in three years, once more data has been gathered and better data is available.

Click here to read the FASD Action Plan 2025-2028 here: https://www.health.govt.nz/publications/fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder-action-plan-2025-2028

Funding announcement

Funding for key initiatives announced today by the Minister totalled $7.25 million. This included $600K annually for FASD-CAN to fund more of their essential community-led FASD navigators, and also TĪtoki, their Individuals Development Programme which helps rangatahi and adults with FASD stay connected, build life skills and achieve their goals.

Tītoki – Individuals Development Programme and the 8 Key Messages

The online event today showcased the important mahi this programme is achieving in supporting rangatahi with FASD to understand and advocate for themselves, and to connect with their peers. A short video was shown alongside the eight ‘key messages’ the leaders of the programme have been working on over the past months – and feedback was extremely positive.

Byron Jones, kaiārahi / leader of Tītoki, said, “We want people to become more understanding of what life is like for people who have FASD, and we want those who work with us to be more compassionate of our brain differences and realise why we need more support.”

The eight key message the Tītoki team has devised can be seen here: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/fasdcan/pages/5350/attachments/original/1757374541/8-key-messages-plus-final.pdf?1757374541

The importance of FASD-informed education

FASD-CAN CEO Stephanie James-Sadler said, “FASD affects between 3-5% of babies born every year, so steps to support prevention is are enormously important. But approximately 56,000 people under 18 years old are currently living with FASD – and that’s where we focus our mahi.

“FASD impacts people across a range of areas. Disengagement from the education system due to lack of investment in FASD-informed practice leads all too often to mental health challenges, substance misuse, lack of employment, interaction with the criminal justice system and suicide. As education is a key baseline indicator for healthy outcomes for those with FASD, we hope particularly to see more involvement from the Ministry of Education in their commitment to this plan and its actions as it is rolled out.”

Disability Support Services (DSS) funding and mental health

FASD-CAN welcomes the launch of the new FASD Action Plan and the funding for their mahi, and sees it as an important next step in awareness and support for those impacted by FASD. The organisation looks forward to what eventuates from these priorities as they roll out in years two and three.

However, they are disappointed that once again there hasn’t been an intention to have a credible conversation to look at the eligibility of the Disability Support Services (DSS) to include those with FASD. Lack of access to DSS was named as a breach of human rights in 2021 by then-Children’s Commissioner Paula Tesoriero. As long as this barrier to meaningful financial support endures, so will disparity and injustice for those impacted by FASD.

They also look forward to seeing more initiatives and actions relating to mental health services for individuals with FASD. They are disportionately affected by these issues due to impacts across so many other areas of their lives.

FASD-CAN will continue to advocate for the needs of those impacted by FASD, and the parents, caregivers and whānau who support them.

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