Helping Police Officers Understand the Autistic (New York...

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Helping Police Officers Understand the Autistic (New York Times)

BRICK TOWNSHIP, N.J. — An autistic boy is discovered standing in the middle of a busy road, on his way to the beach. A young girl with autism outsmarts a number of locks, leaves the house before her mother wakes up and is found, naked but alive, in a neighbor’s pool.

At a recent training for police officers here, both cases illustrated the often delicate task of dealing with people who suffer from autism, a devastating neurological disorder that often strikes in childhood and that impairs one’s ability to communicate and to relate to others.

In the training, the officers were taught that turning off flashing lights and sirens on a police car could make the difference between a peaceful or chaotic encounter, and that if they asked someone with autism if they wanted to waive their rights, they might find that the person waved back at them.

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I don't understand why anyone would leave an autistic individual alone without adequate supervision...it is the same as having a
pool without proper safety measures when there is a child in the house. Where should the level of responsibility truly fall?

Well the training sounds like a good next step. And I know that it sounds bad, but when you look at it devastating is a correct term, especially considering children. Disorder, however, is incorrect.

Emergency Room workers should also be educated on recognizing and treating appropriately, people with Asperger's. Many times, they are viewed by the staff as trouble makers and treated harshly, humiliatingly and incompetently. Especially since a co-morbid condition stands out more prominently then the invisible Asperger's. Often, among the older generation, the patient doesn't even know he has Asperger's and gets treated as a psychiatric case, which of course, he or she believes to be the case after being diagnosed as such. And then there are those Aspies who are self medicating with alcohol or drugs in order to cope with day to day life and whose meltdowns are viewed as disorderly or assaultive behavior to which the ER staff reacts by calling the police.

So yes, the police and every bit as important - medical professionals, should have better training in aiding children and adults with Asperger's and Autism.

Ya, good article, and since I live in NY, itll be interesting to see where this bill goes, it has not yet been approved by the senate. Hopefully this, when passed will become a precident and other states will come up with similar bills if they have not already.