How families/ carers can support their child/ person with autism in emergency situations
We never want to find ourselves or our children in emergency situations. Even though we do not plan for it, life is unpredictable and we cannot control traumatic events. This life events can be even more traumatic when it comes to autistic children.
As adults,we need to prepare in advance how we can support our ASD children/person in care if they ever find themselves in an emergency situation. What is an emergency situation? How can we prepare our ASD individuals for these situations? How can we support first responders in emergency situations?
What situations we might come in contact with first responders?
- Elopement
- Car accidents
- Caregiver illness/injury
- Natural disaster
- Individual illness/injury
- Fire/fire alarms/fire drills
How can we be prepared for emergency situations?
- Have an elopement plan in place
- Register with local police station
- Make a list of the top 5 places your child/person in care may go to
- Inform neighbours ahead of time about your child/person in care behaviours
- Have trained people to support when individual with ASD elopes
- Create a plan that can be accessed by everyone (google drive, Dropbox, cloud, etc.)
- Prepare a profile sheet of your ASD individual where relevant information can be of use for first responders
How to support first responders?
- Expose your child/person in care to first responders, by organising short visits to theirworking places
- Advocating for autism awareness by encouraging first responders to train on how to interact with autistic people in emergency situations.
- Provide responders with profile sheet
- Inform first responders about need and helpful information
- Wait for instructions
If you are a first responder and you are interested in training on how to interact with a person with autism in emergency situations, please leave us a message by filling in the contact form.
If you are a parent/ carer and you want to prepare an emergency plan for your child, leave us a message by filling in the contact form
