LEAN on Us Webinar with Autism NOW May 3, 2011

8/6/2019 LEAN on Us Webinar with Autism NOW May 3, 2011

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Safety Concerns for Families

and Individuals with ASD

Autism Now

and

L.E.A.N. On Us

May 3rd, 2011

Webinar


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Safety Concerns for Familiesand Individuals with ASD

Our Host ~ Andrew Gammicchia

As the President of L.E.A.N. On Us,

a police officer with 25 years

experience in the field, and mostimportantly the father of a nineteen

year old young man with ASD,Andrew has a unique insight. Hisexperiences have allowed him to

see both sides of the coin in theareas of appropriate preparedness

and response to individuals

with a disability.

May 3rd, 2011 L.E.A.N. On Uswww.leanonus.org 2


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L.E.A.N. On Us was foundedin 2001 as a volunteer

organization of first

responders who havechildren living with

disabilities. The mission ofthe organization is to

educate, collaborate, andprovide information andresources to allow for safercommunities for all of us.



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Why we need to collaborate to ensure individuals withASD are safe and have resources:

A study on child abuse and autism (Mandell, 2005) found that

caregivers reported that 18.5% of children with autism had

been physically abused and 16.6% had been sexually abused.

Individuals with autism are generally taught compliance from avery young age, making them easy targets for criminals(Petersilia, 2001). Also more likely targets for bullying.

Individuals with autism have difficulty picking up social cues(social referencing) and understanding other individualsthoughts and intentions (Wetherby and Prizant, 2001), makingthem vulnerable to a range of crimes from fraud and theft tomore violent crimes.



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A daunting task that we have to begin

somewhere. When approaching safety it is

often best to look at what we may do each

and everyday to keep ourselves safe:

Wear a seat belt in cars and planes

Place our children in car seats

Lock our doors and windows

Set our house alarms

Wear bike helmets when we ride Use caution around strangers

Be aware of our surroundings

Carry identification


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In comparison we then can look at

what, if anything, we need to

consider to make a day that much

safer for individuals living with ASD.

The challenge may come howeverbecause there are no cookie cutter

answers for everyone. Each

individual has differing needs and

may need more assistance or betterprecautions. But building an initial

solid foundation for overall safety is

key for anyone.


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Starting with safety for infantsand children, we can look to

resources to preventaccidental injury. A topic that

been a concern for manyyears in the ASD community is

wandering. However sincewe do not have actual data to

show if children with ASD

wander more than thosewithout, these sites provide a

foundation for overallchild safety.

Safe Kids USA

www.safekids.org(Site has a new video series for

children with disabilities)

The National Center forMissing and Exploited

Children

www.missingkids.comThis site features excellent resources

for all age groups and interactive

materials and many free

resources.

http://www.safekids.org/http://www.missingkids.com/http://www.missingkids.com/http://www.safekids.org/


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After establishing that initial foundation for safe home andcommunity environments, these sites can assist

families with material specific to individuals with ASD:

Autism Now Safety Information

http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/

The Autism Society Safe & Sound Campaign

www.autism-society.org

The Autism Safety Project www.autismsafetyproject.org

AWAARE Collaboration www.awaare.org

http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/http://www.autism-society.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.awaare.org/http://www.awaare.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/http://www.autism-society.org/http://www.autism-society.org/http://www.autism-society.org/http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/http://autismnow.org/in-the-community/safety/


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L.E.A.N. On Us also has a variety of free items toassist with providing a path to a safer communityfor individuals with ASD atwww.leanonus.org :

Safety Identification cards 911 Registry Form Example

Law Enforcement Pocket Cards

Article - Protecting Loved Ones with Autism

Article - Safety for Persons with Autism

Series of six fact sheets and two brochures forvictims of crime with ASD

http://www.leanonus.org/http://www.leanonus.org/


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Five* Suggestions: Things You Can Do to Make YourCommunity Safer For Your Child and All

Individuals with Autism (Recapping some info)

1. Obtain a personal ID card for your child from the Secretaryof State office so that if you child goes missing officers willhave a photo on file and information to use across thecountry. Ensure if you child carries the ID, that you keepthe ID number available also.

2. Read the article Safety for Persons with Autism which hasbeen provided and is also available, along with anadditional series of articles that were featured in the ASAAdvocate entitled Protecting Your Loved One with

Autism, atwww.leanonus.org.



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Safety Issues for Familiesand Individuals with ASD

c. Provide them with a copy of the resource list forresponding to individuals with disabilities and a copy ofthe information sheet about Serving Victims of Crime

with Autism. Both are provided today. Ask them if they

provide any training that is specific to ASD or disabilities

in general.

d. Ask what alert system they use if an individual withautism goes missing. If they dont have a specific alert,

ask them if they would consider using the Silver AlertSystem model.

e. Print some law enforcement pocket cards for them onidentification and response tips from the L.E.A.N. On Uswebsite atwww.leanonus.org. These can be printed outon business cards.



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May 3rd, 2011

L.E.A.N. On Us

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In 2007 L.E.A.N. On Us Executive Director Carolyn

Gammicchia and Catriona Johnson, collaborated

on the Crime Victims with Autism Assistance,

Education, and Training Program. The project,

funded by the Department of Justice Office for

Victims of Crime, developed a series of fact sheets

and brochures to assist crime victim assistance

professionals, families, and individuals with

autism. An eight hour training is also available.

A 2007 project survey of individuals with autism

and others revealed that 35% of individuals with

ASD have been the victim of a crime.


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These materials are the first of a series of publications designedto improve services to crime victims with autism and can bedownloaded without cost from the L.EAN. On Us website at

www.leanonus.org .

If You Are A Victim Of Crime

Autism Information for Crime Victim Service Professionals

May 3rd, 2011

L.E.A.N. On Us

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http://www.leanonus.org/http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/paramedic-lwa-press-rev.pdf?docID=9801http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/domestic-abuse-lwa.pdf?docID=9722http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/legal-lwa.pdf?docID=9741http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/counsel-lwa.pdf?docID=9721http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/lwa-1st-responders.pdf?DocID=9742http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/self-victim.pdf?docID=9745http://www.leanonus.org/


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Autism Informed Response VideoSouth Carolina Autism Society

www.scautism.org

The A.I.R. Program was developed to assist LawEnforcement in providing appropriate services to

individuals with ASD. This eight minute video is awonderful resource, though the language use is a

little dates, we feel the information and seeingindividuals on varying degrees of the spectrum

will assist first responders.



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May 3rd, 2011L.E.A.N. On Us

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An additional resource for victims of crime withdisabilities is SafePlace. They offer an extensiveseries of trainings for individuals with disabilities

for prevention and safety. www.safeplace.org

They also have an excellent bookletKid and Teen Safe: An Abuse Prevention

Program for Youth with Disabilities that can be

downloaded free:http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-

full.pdf

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L.E.A.N. On Us

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http://www.safeplace.org/http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-full.pdfhttp://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-full.pdfhttp://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-full.pdfhttp://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-full.pdfhttp://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_KTSafe-full.pdfhttp://www.safeplace.org/


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Lastly wed like to offer some resources for

emergency preparedness for natural disasters.With recent weather difficulties across the country

this has been a concern for many families.

This booklet is available at:

www.fema.gov

http://www.redcross.org also has abooklet Disaster Preparedness for

People with Disabilities that can be

downloaded free.


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http://www.fema.gov/http://www.redcross.org/http://www.redcross.org/http://www.fema.gov/


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www.leanonus.org 20

In closing wed like to thank you for

attending todays webinar. We do hope

that these resources will provide a

foundation for a path to safercommunities for individuals living with

autism spectrum disorder.

Please feel free to contact us via the

comment section on our website and alsovisit our Facebook page which we update

with information and resources daily.

Documents

LEAN on Us Webinar with Autism NOW May 3, 2011