PARIS – A person with autism might not look a police officer in the eye, which could be mistaken for being deceitful. Or the person might stand too close, misunderstanding social cues about body space and unintentionally coming across as hostile.
To help avoid a tragic mishap, a probation officer from Portland is dedicated to teaching Maine’s first responders about the condition.
The number of people diagnosed with autism is growing, according to the Autism Society of Maine. And autism is a complex mental disorder that causes behaviors that might be misunderstood by police or paramedics during a crisis.
Last month, Oxford County’s dispatch center asked Matt Brown to hold a session in Paris. Paris police, Norway police, the Otisfield fire department, Fryeburg rescue and the dispatch center sent representatives to the training, said Jeff Clark, a county dispatcher and 911 public education coordinator, on Monday.
Clark said the training will help dispatchers inform police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians about what to expect in situations involving someone with autism. Clark is also asking parents to give the dispatch center or local police departments information about their autistic child, which would show up in a computer search during a 911 emergency.
Experience helps
“People with a developmental disability are seven times more likely to come in contact with police,” Brown said Monday in a phone interview. He has an 8-year-old son with autism, so can easily bridge the world between autism and law enforcement, he said.
People with autism range from low- to high-functioning, with some not able to speak at all and others giving the appearance of being largely untouched by the neurological disorder.
The ones who seem untouched “are the ones who tend to get in trouble, because nothing stands out right away,” Brown said. “People assume they are being smart-asses, or they are blunt, because they don’t know how to communicate effectively.”
Nancy Intrieri, executive director of the Autism Society of Maine, said school data from last year shows 1,255 students classified with classic autism. That number doesn’t include students with other types of autism. And diagnosed cases of autism of school-aged children – ages 3 to 20 – jumped by 26 percent last year, she said.
Intrieri said drowning is the primary cause of death for autistic people, and the second cause results from interactions with law enforcement officials.
“The way officers are trained to put someone down, they lie them on the ground with their face in the ground, and they die of asphyxiation because they can’t get air; they have less muscle tone,” she said.
Clark is asking relatives of autistic people to fill out an informational form that asks for details. These include weight and eye color to mental health diagnosis, medical concerns, and whether the person is noise sensitive or touch sensitive.
The form also requests an explanation of triggers that might upset the autistic person and also about topics that interest him or her.
“Another thing, too, with kids with autism who run away, is they don’t run away in the normal sense,” Brown said. “They’ll get something in their head that they are obsessed with and wander away.”
Mother’s response
Dagny Lilley, who co-owns the Irish Ewe yarn shop in Norway, has a 2-year-old son with autism. When she heard about the form, she said she would be inclined to fill it out. She also suggested that parents write down what calms their child.
“If they are prone to be violent when they are upset, at least there will be one way to comfort them,” she said. Her son is pacified by keys and a little woolen hat, she said.
Lilley said other people with autism might respond to hugs, being restrained or by closing their eyes.
Some will have a hard time processing a lot of movement, sirens and noise – typical elements in a disaster or accident. “If they can wrap them in a blanket, that might help,” she said.
Brown runs training sessions wherever he is invited, he said. In May, he’ll be instructing Rumford and Farmington police and the Paris Fire Department.
Also, he is backing a bill that would make training in autism mandatory for law enforcement officials in Maine, he said.
“If they had a little bit of knowledge about the disorder,” Brown said of police officers, “they will say, I have to handle this a little differently; I can’t ask the person five questions in a row.”
Intrieri said, “Who would have thought police would have had to deal with autism” just a few years ago? “We’re going up significantly every year, and one reason we have not had a death in this state is because of Matt’s work.”
Comments are no longer available on this story