annoyed at lack of awareness in those who should know

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Today I spoke to a Neighbour of mine I had spoken to him a little but didnt know what he did as a job. Today I found out he was a policeman he asked about friends etc and I said I don't have any close friends because I have Asperger's. He told me he did not know what AS was I found this frustrating and upsetting. I gave him some info and even after reasing it his ignorant language was offensive calling AS a "disease" and not wanting to name AS calliing it "your thing". Especially as 2 years ago I had an issue with the cops when i was a witness and wrote to the police. They came to my house and promised me that AS would be introduced to their (the police) 6 monthly awareness training on conditions this clearly has not happened. If he was a guy on the street fair enough but police, doctors, teachers etc will undoubtedly deal with AS need to know about it in order to reduce misunderstandings and assumptions. It is tough for me I deal with AS as best i can but when i try to explain it the lack of knowledge and ignorance makes me more stressed.

Catster,

People really cannot know what they haven't been taught. Cops, Doctors etc are only human beings. They don't all manage to attend every awareness training, and even if they do they don't always take in every word of it...

I came across a gastroenterology registrar last week who didn't know what Asperger's Syndrome was...I just rated him 10 out of 10 for admitting he didn't know what it was, rather than being arrogant and pretending he did...and explained.

You might find Dennis Debbault's awareness work and mailing list interesting:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Risk-Safety

M.

i am not blaming him I am upset at the system who promised that it would be included in their awareness training and clearly has not. I made it clear I do not expect the cops to be professors in AS just to know what it is and the basic characteristics in my book that isn't too much to ask. Especially as I said if they do not it can cause issues both for the police and the person with AS as it has on many occasions here in Aus. It was also his ingorant language that upset me callingi t a disease. Also sure I am a bit of a cruisader but I am not uset by that I feel passionately to make AS aware to those who need to know to help others.

I'll admit, it can be quite annoying in those types of situations. Shouldn't police be informed of Asperger's anyway?

It's dangerous when police don't know what autism is. Catch somebody at the scene of the crime, he's avoiding your eyes, he's obviously nervous, he's got a flat voice and not much facial expression... what does a cop think if he's got no clue what AS is? And if the Aspie hasn't done whatever it is, the actual criminal is getting away while the cop gets led on a rabbit trail... let alone what happens if the aspie panics and runs.

I must say that I'm very annoyed at my PE teacher for her utter lack of understanding.

I tried to explain to her how I was bad at PE because I had bad motor skills and very bad team work skills in sports due to Asperger's but all she said to me was "but I've tought people in wheelchairs to do sports so surely you can" uhhh... NO! Bad motor/team skills are entirly different... She's a ****ing idiot, I hate her.

I agree with you Catster! He should not be so clueless as to say "your thing"! I would have felt weird about that too. If it was me I would have printed off some information from the internet and then told him he should learn a bit about it because many people in the world are on the spectrum. Officer Friendly should show a caring attitude!

yeah i get what your saying but i wouldnt say that:

I dont know anyone that has any idea what AS axially is.

after talking to him again last night after he read the stuff on AS you could tell he was clueless and hew said most of his fellow cops were too and it is wrong. Think of how many aspies may have been unfairly harrassed as a result.