Dennis Debbaudt is a name that appears frequently in information regarding training about Autism to first responders in emergencies.
There is a document that contains some suggestions about how to prepare for an emergency ahead a time. To read about these suggestions, go to this link. I found that it contained some information that I was unaware of. For example, did you know that some communities have a 911 special needs database? I didn't. You can provide information about the person in your home with special needs in advance of an emergency in case you are unable to communicate the information yourself. Did you know that there are decals for your car and home that let first responders know that someone with autism may be present? I didn't.
Copy and paste this URL to read more:
http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/documents/autism_emergency.pdf
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Are Law Enforcement Officers Trained to Respond to Citizens with ASD?
I am curious about what resources are provided to those people who work in our community to respond to emergencies. Do they know the best ways to help our "special" citizens, or might they accidentally make things worse because of lack of training or knowledge?
I am trying to find out the answers to these questions. I always find the internet to be one good source of information and an easy place to begin finding answers.
Here is one article about some local programs:
Copy and paste this URL to read about some Maryland and Virginia counties in the D.C. area:
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/family/article/law-enforcement-training-for-autism-related1/
Here is a link to information about training for first responders:
Copy and paste this URL to read about this training program :
http://www.leanonus.org/trainings.html
This link is about a conference in North Carolina that was held for state law enforcement after a man with autism died while in police custody.
Copy and paste this link to read about it.
http://asa.confex.com/asa/2006/techprogram/S2232.HTM
This newsweek article relates several specific instances of misunderstandings that have happened when law enforcement came into contact with autistic individuals and explains how organizations and concerned citizens are trying to provide better information to officers through training.
Copy and paste this link to read more about it:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/08/is-sitting-while-autistic-a-crime.html
This link is to the Autism Society and is about pamphlets that they offer to assist first reponders and law enforcement.
Copy and paste this URL to see this information:
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_safeandsound_firstresponders
So, from my internet search, I am still not clear on what, if any, training has been provided to Maryland state officers, Montgomery county officers, or the city forces of Germantown or Gaithersburg where we would be mostly like to encounter the police. Looks like more research is needed. At least I now know that some of our country's jurisdictions are addressing this issue.
If you know more about this topic, please add your comments.
Postscript: I learned from Craig Schultz of the Autism Socieity of America, that trainings to Montgomery County, MD and Rockville, Md police have been provided by the ASA. Also, Maryland State police have had training in general mental health issues, but not specifically ASD's or developmental disabilities, but that training could be considered in the future.
I am trying to find out the answers to these questions. I always find the internet to be one good source of information and an easy place to begin finding answers.
Here is one article about some local programs:
Copy and paste this URL to read about some Maryland and Virginia counties in the D.C. area:
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/family/article/law-enforcement-training-for-autism-related1/
Here is a link to information about training for first responders:
Copy and paste this URL to read about this training program :
http://www.leanonus.org/trainings.html
This link is about a conference in North Carolina that was held for state law enforcement after a man with autism died while in police custody.
Copy and paste this link to read about it.
http://asa.confex.com/asa/2006/techprogram/S2232.HTM
This newsweek article relates several specific instances of misunderstandings that have happened when law enforcement came into contact with autistic individuals and explains how organizations and concerned citizens are trying to provide better information to officers through training.
Copy and paste this link to read more about it:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/08/is-sitting-while-autistic-a-crime.html
This link is to the Autism Society and is about pamphlets that they offer to assist first reponders and law enforcement.
Copy and paste this URL to see this information:
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_safeandsound_firstresponders
So, from my internet search, I am still not clear on what, if any, training has been provided to Maryland state officers, Montgomery county officers, or the city forces of Germantown or Gaithersburg where we would be mostly like to encounter the police. Looks like more research is needed. At least I now know that some of our country's jurisdictions are addressing this issue.
If you know more about this topic, please add your comments.
Postscript: I learned from Craig Schultz of the Autism Socieity of America, that trainings to Montgomery County, MD and Rockville, Md police have been provided by the ASA. Also, Maryland State police have had training in general mental health issues, but not specifically ASD's or developmental disabilities, but that training could be considered in the future.
Promising new drug test for symptoms of ASD
Copy and past this URL to read the full article about this new drug test:
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/26284/?p1=A2&a=f#afteradbody
This is one that I would ask my daughter's doctor to look into. Here is just an the beginning of the article:
A Drug Shows Promise in Autism
A chemical that alters chemical signaling seems to ease anxiety and other symptoms.
By Karen Weintraub
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Though the research is still preliminary, scientists appear to be closing in on a molecular explanation for at least some cases of autism. Research in lab animals, cadavers, and now in a small clinical trial in children seems to support the idea that autism is caused by a lack of chemical regulation in synapses, the junction between brain cells.
Alleviating autism: A drug called arbaclofen (its chemical structure is shown above) appears to ease anxiety and some other symptoms in a small study of children with autism.
Credit: Seaside Therapeutics
The latest evidence for this comes from a clinical trial of 25 autistic children ages six to 17. The trial was conducted by Seaside Therapeutics of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In unpublished data released last week, the company says the children seemed to respond well to the drug arbaclofen and suffer minimal side effects. Arbaclofen is related to the drug baclofen, a commonly used muscle relaxer and antispastic agent. The children took the drug for eight weeks, and most saw significant improvements in measures of irritability and communication, two common problems in autism.
The finding is considered preliminary because the study was not placebo-controlled, meaning scientists couldn't compare children taking the drug to those taking a placebo. This is especially important in studies of autism because many of the tests used to assess patients are subjective, including behavioral evaluations from parents and clinicians, says Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, assistant professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. About a half-dozen of his patients were involved in the trial.
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/26284/?p1=A2&a=f#afteradbody
This is one that I would ask my daughter's doctor to look into. Here is just an the beginning of the article:
A Drug Shows Promise in Autism
A chemical that alters chemical signaling seems to ease anxiety and other symptoms.
By Karen Weintraub
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Though the research is still preliminary, scientists appear to be closing in on a molecular explanation for at least some cases of autism. Research in lab animals, cadavers, and now in a small clinical trial in children seems to support the idea that autism is caused by a lack of chemical regulation in synapses, the junction between brain cells.
Alleviating autism: A drug called arbaclofen (its chemical structure is shown above) appears to ease anxiety and some other symptoms in a small study of children with autism.
Credit: Seaside Therapeutics
The latest evidence for this comes from a clinical trial of 25 autistic children ages six to 17. The trial was conducted by Seaside Therapeutics of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In unpublished data released last week, the company says the children seemed to respond well to the drug arbaclofen and suffer minimal side effects. Arbaclofen is related to the drug baclofen, a commonly used muscle relaxer and antispastic agent. The children took the drug for eight weeks, and most saw significant improvements in measures of irritability and communication, two common problems in autism.
The finding is considered preliminary because the study was not placebo-controlled, meaning scientists couldn't compare children taking the drug to those taking a placebo. This is especially important in studies of autism because many of the tests used to assess patients are subjective, including behavioral evaluations from parents and clinicians, says Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, assistant professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. About a half-dozen of his patients were involved in the trial.
IAN Topic on Bullying of ASD children
As I have mentioned in a previous posting, IAN, is a helpful website and here is an article relating to IAN on the topic of Bullying at school for ASD kids.
Find the article by copying and pasting this URL;
http://www.crestonnewsadvertiser.com/articles/ara/2010/09/16/8049210103/index.xml
More information on this topic can be found on the IAN website
Find the article by copying and pasting this URL;
http://www.crestonnewsadvertiser.com/articles/ara/2010/09/16/8049210103/index.xml
More information on this topic can be found on the IAN website
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Emergency Resources in the Community
Yesterday, I held a training on behavior management and safe strategies for V's personal support staff. We have some new staff who have been trained by a local agency and their strategies and responses were not exactly on the same page with the staff who have been with us longer. My hope was to get them all using the same strategies and working well together with each other when they take V into the community. Although V has 2:1 staffing for community time, one of the staff mentioned during the training that she thought there may be circumstances where she would call the police for assistance. This has never happened in all of V's life and I have never had to give consideration as to what consequences such a action might have for all parties involved.
The trainer informed the staff that they had more and better training on how to manage V than the police have, and that such an action would probably result in V being placed in handcuffs and taken somewhere in a police car, and this would not be the best solution to the problem.
The fact that someone on staff was even thinking of this as a possibility concerned me enough to follow up on this topic with a personal friend who is the captain of the local police station. I asked him what would happen if my staff called the police while out in the community with V in a situation they did not feel they could safely handle. He confirmed what the trainer had told my staff, that they would probably put her in cuffs and take her to the emergency room in the police car. He was unfamiliar with the basket hold or other safe restraints and escorts that my staff have been trained in, and so this is probably the case with the officers on the city force.
He suggested that I call the community services division of his city and speak to Crystal,the director for guidance. I called her right away and spoke to her at length about my issue. She was not sure about the best recourse in such a situation, but suggested that I contact the Mobile Crisis team at the Crisis Center for the county department of health and hygiene.
I followed this advice and explained my situation to Beth at the Crisis Center. She explained to me that the people at the Mobile crisis Team were trained to talk to Verbal individuals who were in a mental health crisis, and that the team had a hands-off policy. When they respond to a crisis they bring police with them. She thought that a better resource, although not a perfect option, was to call the police non-emergency number and request a CIT officer, who is someone who has been through a 40-hour advanced mental health training and who she thought may be more likely to listen to the recommendations of the support staff.
Basically, my conversations made the Mobile Crisis Team aware that there is a population of people in the community that they are not prepared to serve. I wonder if an awareness of a gap in services might lead to some action to fill that gap.
My friend, the police captain, sent a follow up message to see if his referral had been helpful, and I filled him in, at the same time providing the contact information for our trainer in case he ever feels it would be appropriate to provide training to his officers for how to best manage citizens with autism or developmental disabilities in the community who are agitated and not necessarily able to talk it through.
I learned a lot through the question raised by my staff about using emergency resources in the community, and I have a lot more to learn to feel that I have a good solution for my staff in these situation. I need to provide them with guidelines and emergency contacts for exactly this kind of scenario, although, to date, they have never been unable to resolve a problem in community without additional help.
They have the contact information for my husband and I, doctors, therapists, etc... but what I think they actually want is just an extra strong body to assist in the moment. Since my husband and I are not always close by, I could give permission for them to call an off-duty staff member for assistance, since those people would have the necessary training and experience. I can provide the non-emergency police number for a CIT officer, although I don't know if that would be more helpful or harmful, and usually V calms down before anyone else can actually get to the location she is at anyway.
If anyone knows of any better solutions to these situations, please post your comments.
The trainer informed the staff that they had more and better training on how to manage V than the police have, and that such an action would probably result in V being placed in handcuffs and taken somewhere in a police car, and this would not be the best solution to the problem.
The fact that someone on staff was even thinking of this as a possibility concerned me enough to follow up on this topic with a personal friend who is the captain of the local police station. I asked him what would happen if my staff called the police while out in the community with V in a situation they did not feel they could safely handle. He confirmed what the trainer had told my staff, that they would probably put her in cuffs and take her to the emergency room in the police car. He was unfamiliar with the basket hold or other safe restraints and escorts that my staff have been trained in, and so this is probably the case with the officers on the city force.
He suggested that I call the community services division of his city and speak to Crystal,the director for guidance. I called her right away and spoke to her at length about my issue. She was not sure about the best recourse in such a situation, but suggested that I contact the Mobile Crisis team at the Crisis Center for the county department of health and hygiene.
I followed this advice and explained my situation to Beth at the Crisis Center. She explained to me that the people at the Mobile crisis Team were trained to talk to Verbal individuals who were in a mental health crisis, and that the team had a hands-off policy. When they respond to a crisis they bring police with them. She thought that a better resource, although not a perfect option, was to call the police non-emergency number and request a CIT officer, who is someone who has been through a 40-hour advanced mental health training and who she thought may be more likely to listen to the recommendations of the support staff.
Basically, my conversations made the Mobile Crisis Team aware that there is a population of people in the community that they are not prepared to serve. I wonder if an awareness of a gap in services might lead to some action to fill that gap.
My friend, the police captain, sent a follow up message to see if his referral had been helpful, and I filled him in, at the same time providing the contact information for our trainer in case he ever feels it would be appropriate to provide training to his officers for how to best manage citizens with autism or developmental disabilities in the community who are agitated and not necessarily able to talk it through.
I learned a lot through the question raised by my staff about using emergency resources in the community, and I have a lot more to learn to feel that I have a good solution for my staff in these situation. I need to provide them with guidelines and emergency contacts for exactly this kind of scenario, although, to date, they have never been unable to resolve a problem in community without additional help.
They have the contact information for my husband and I, doctors, therapists, etc... but what I think they actually want is just an extra strong body to assist in the moment. Since my husband and I are not always close by, I could give permission for them to call an off-duty staff member for assistance, since those people would have the necessary training and experience. I can provide the non-emergency police number for a CIT officer, although I don't know if that would be more helpful or harmful, and usually V calms down before anyone else can actually get to the location she is at anyway.
If anyone knows of any better solutions to these situations, please post your comments.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Learn a Little Bit About Human Resources
No matter how well you screen and train your employees, performance issues are bound to occur from time to time. Some will be minor and some serious. While the care of the disabled person is the first consideration, some knowledge about correct HR procedures can protect you from a possible law suit for wrongful termination, and can protect you from unemployment claims that can raise your unemployment insurance premiums on your other staff.
Maryland DDA provides New Directions Waiver Support Brokers with a manual that includes a disciplinary form and some guidelines. It is your judgement, however, that will determine when to merely provide a verbal reminder about your procedures to a staff member, and when to put it in writing and impose a suspension or to terminate employment. I had a lengthy conversation with the Human Resources specialist at the ARC and learned a lot from her. Some of what she had to say was surprising to me. Unless V's safety has been deliberately put at risk, I try to use mistakes as teaching opportunities,starting with a mild verbal reminder, or a refresher training on the issue at hand. I keep a record of these issues/incidents somewhere so that they can be mentioned in the next performance review, and so that I have a record if the same problem occurs again. If the problem continues, then a written warning is presented, signed by all parties, and goes into the employee file. If the issue is serious enough, I may skip the simple written warning and write up the incident, imposing a suspension for a day or longer, without pay.
Your chances of winning an in an unemployment claim if termination becomes necessary, are better if you can show a written record of performance issues, especially a pattern of behavior that has not responded to counseling.
Even if all you want is to have good care for yourself or a loved one, having employees makes you an employer and that brings all of the legal responsibilities that go along with that job, whether it is a paid job or not. It can be unpleasant, frustrating and stressful at times and it is one price paid for having to depend on others for care.
Good luck to all of you out there who are managing these responsibilities.
Maryland DDA provides New Directions Waiver Support Brokers with a manual that includes a disciplinary form and some guidelines. It is your judgement, however, that will determine when to merely provide a verbal reminder about your procedures to a staff member, and when to put it in writing and impose a suspension or to terminate employment. I had a lengthy conversation with the Human Resources specialist at the ARC and learned a lot from her. Some of what she had to say was surprising to me. Unless V's safety has been deliberately put at risk, I try to use mistakes as teaching opportunities,starting with a mild verbal reminder, or a refresher training on the issue at hand. I keep a record of these issues/incidents somewhere so that they can be mentioned in the next performance review, and so that I have a record if the same problem occurs again. If the problem continues, then a written warning is presented, signed by all parties, and goes into the employee file. If the issue is serious enough, I may skip the simple written warning and write up the incident, imposing a suspension for a day or longer, without pay.
Your chances of winning an in an unemployment claim if termination becomes necessary, are better if you can show a written record of performance issues, especially a pattern of behavior that has not responded to counseling.
Even if all you want is to have good care for yourself or a loved one, having employees makes you an employer and that brings all of the legal responsibilities that go along with that job, whether it is a paid job or not. It can be unpleasant, frustrating and stressful at times and it is one price paid for having to depend on others for care.
Good luck to all of you out there who are managing these responsibilities.
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