So there’s a petition for a new alert going around for missing Autistic children called The Mason Alert. It would inititiare an alert system for a missing autistic child similar to the Amber Alert. Frankly I’m against it for several reasons.
The Mason Alert would it seems require police to keep a database of every autistic child and their interests, fascinations, etc and send out an alert similar to an Amber Alert if one goes missing. I don’t think this would be effective, in fact I believe it would be counter effective. There are much less costly means which are much more efficient.
Training of Police Officers
I agree this an issue, in fact I think its a huge issue. I don’t think you need a petition to educate the police on autism. Find a special education teacher thats passionate about their job, a local professional or someone that can help the police understand how a person with Autism’s mind works. Then approach the police with some hard facts like how many autistics live in their jurisdiction, how many police contacts they have a year, etc. Most departments are there to serve the community and would love to get training to be more effective in how to deal with different segments of the population.
Another Alert?
I don’t think the public and the media are going to be really warm to getting their TV interrupted every time an Autistic child wanders for a few minutes. Every time a TV station breaks in with lifesaving news about a tornado on the ground they get countless calls complaining about the break in interrupting their favorite shows. If you don’t believe me watch this video (warning strong language)
You have to realize that every time they break in they loose money. TV stations are not a public service, they are companys that need money. Their interest is making their viewers happy so they get better ratings and then more money. Making another type of alert would just irritate the public and media even more, and frankly by the time they got the alert out to the media and public the child would be likely dead from drowning.
Project Lifesaver
Theres already a great program out there that would be much more helpful and quick then putting out an alert. Its called Project Lifesaver.
A Project Lifesaver Reciever
Citizens enrolled in Project Lifesaver wear a small personal transmitter around the wrist or ankle that emits an individualized tracking signal. If an enrolled client goes missing, the caregiver notifies their local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area. Most who wander are found within a few miles from home, and search times have been reduced from hours and days to minutes. Recovery times for PLI clients average 30 minutes — 95% less time than standard operations.
In my area the police have the equipment to receive the signals from these bracelets. They started the program with a grant (and grants are not hard to get at all). A police officer changes the battery on the bracelets regularly for each person. If an autistic child wanders and were wearing a project lifesaver bracelet, they would be found in the quickest manor possible. You can enroll in this program for $1 a day! Their over dramatized promotional video is below.
The Ultimate Responsibility
I really think the ultimate responsibility of caring for an autistic child with a tendency to wander is on the parents. Its is their responsibility to make sure doors and windows are secured, their children are properly supervised, etc. If I had a child that tended to wander I would in no way hesitate to spend $1 a day to be more assured that their safe.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
We -you, and me- are coming from places formed of our own experience. Here’s mine:
I am the parent of an 18 year old young man with excellent problem-solving skills (he could teach Houdini a few tricks) , no sense of danger, a fondness for eloping – especially late at night. Up until recently we were a military family, with frequent moves.
We have locks on the doors, bars on the windows, motion detectors… he recently rammed the front door so hard he knocked the entire system, including the frame, out of the house. So consider that when you talk about lack of parent supervision, ok?
Part of every move has been a check-in with Emergency Service Providors – Fire, Police, MPs – just so they know who we are. The hope is if a cop sees my son running late at night, and he refuses to stop when ordered, he won’t get shot, you know? Living off-base, I also reach out to local retailers, neighbors, and taxi drivers – an early alert system, as it were.
We’ve tried medic-alert bracelets with contact info, we’ve tried GPS-transmitter devices. He refuses to wear them; when we made them un-removable he seriously damaged himself trying to get them off.
As far as people and upset with tv, and lost revenue: it is what it is. This would presumably be in the nature of a PSA – so deductible, at the very least. And people have been upset over programming forever. So?
Pictures and lists of interests are not a good idea: they engender a false sense that things are under control, but looks and interests change – so every incident requires new information.
If your son is tearing entire door frames out of walls to escape he needs to be put in a more restrictive environment.
At this point, he’s in an IRA, assigned 3:1 coverage. He has “eloped” from there also… but this is beside the point. The “Alert” system would be helpful.
I think accommodations should never cause an undue burden on the community. Requiring a break in on tv and radio for any person with a disability that effects cognitive reasoning that has gone missing would desensitize the public, and frankly piss them off. In large metropolitan areas this likely happens upwards of ten times a day or more. I don’t think its reasonable. If the child is missing for an extended period I think it would be much more reasonable.
I have to agree with Jeff too, if your child has a tendency to wander its your responsibility to prevent that. Its your responsibility to secure exit points, get a gps tracker if necessary and if that don’t work look at a placement. If your having to call the police more then 2-3 times a year because your child wanders you need to look at your options.
Reducto ab absurdum:
Accomodations and undue burden on community? we should get rid of wheelchair ramps, maybe? After all, they’re paid for by tax dollars, and take up sidewalk space.
Securing the residence? Easy riposte: how about Home Owners Associations that will not allow modifications ’cause they don’t “look right”?
Ads are a break in TV and radio… and do indeed piss people off.
Again, my son lives in a residence, will not wear any locator/id devices… also, at 18 I very much double these alerts would apply… unless they are also going to use them for people with Alzheimers and similar?
Never mind – I just realized this whole thing is consistent with the Dx served. I should not expect you to act as an other person’s advocate, or be able to see things from another’s point of view, right?
You don’t have an autistic child. That is clearly obvious. You have no idea of what it means to be the parent to an autistic child. You have no idea what it means to lose your child. You have no idea what it means to bury your child. You have no idea what it means to wake up in the morning sobbing with a broken heart and go to bed every night with your arms aching to hold a precious little boy that will never be here again. I do. This alert is to honor my son, to keep his memory alive, to prevent another senseless death from happening again.
Do you know why I want this alert? Not because I want to spend taxpayer dollars on something senseless, but because I witness, firsthand, the price for authorities not knowing how to look for an autistic child. They were looking, yes, calling his name, yes, but where they anywhere near where I had asked them to go. Did they realize that Mason couldn’t respond to them if he’d wanted to? No. Did they find him floating face down in muddy water and pull his lifeless body out and start CPR? No. I did. He had seen the pond exactly one time in two years, and despite his autism and mental delays, he never forgot where it was.
Do you think I didn’t try to keep him safe? We had double key locks on every door, childproof door handle safety devices on every door, slip locks at the very top of every door. I loved my son more than you can ever even imagine, and would give anything to have him back, but all it took was a window open six inches, one second of inattention, and he is gone forever. I spend my days wondering how I can die just so I can be with him.
And you know something else? I’m not alone. I have received over two thousand sign ups in just two weeks. Every single comment from those that still have their children are begging for this to come to be, and the others, well they are from mothers and fathers who weep like me because their precious babies have been lost.
I would love to send you the emails, if only to show you a glimpse into the life of someone who lives in constant fear of losing their fearless, determined, brilliant angel.
And here is a little statistic for you. 1 out of every 110 children is diagnosed as Autistic (which means the chances of your child, neice, nephew, brother or sister being diagnosed is very, very high), 92% of autistic children wander (this means they wait and watch and the second your back is turned, or you look the other direction they are gone). The NUMBER ONE cause of death among autistic children is DROWNING. What a horrible death my son suffered. I think about it every minute of every day.
Thank yo for your time.
Sheila Medlam
ps.
Our children are not capable of adapting to the environments they are surrounded by. It is time for the environments to adapt to them, because if it doesn’t the price is just to high to contemplate.
I am autistic.
Excuse me, I don’t have any idea what its like to loose a child?
I have no idea to know what its like going to bed every night never able to hold my child?
Maybe you should do some reading before you make some assumptions http://www.thezach.net/section/my-daughter-julia/
Its taking every fucking ounce of self control for me not to tell you how much you pissed me off. Telling me I never know what its like to loose a child. Oh I do, believe me I do.
I know the statistics, as I said I had autism. But there is a limit to what accomodations we as disabled and those who care for disabled can expect from the community. Every time a autistic child wandered requiring an amber alert would frankly pass the line of too much of a burden. It happens multiple times a day.
If you would of got something like a GPS locater for your child this would be non issue.
Also please think before you make a blog post that makes you appear to be a huge bitch telling someone who lost their daughter they don’t know what its like to loose a child.
Perhaps a definition of terms is in order… pussyfooting around with the word “lost” is causing problems. A person with limited cognitive or social understanding -be it caused by ASD, Alheimers, or… is more likely to DIE unless found quickly, and in some cases, to die horribly. Does that help?
I can’t believe anyone would be against something like this wonderful Alert! I too am a mother of a severely Autistic child and I pray every night that my child will be safe. Anything that could save a child is a blessing! Not only for individuals with autism but also the elderly or anyone who is prone to wandering. God bless the Mason Allen Medlam Foundation. Also most children with Autism who are severe enough that you would have to worry about wandering will not ware a bracelet due to their sensory issues. They would rather beat their head on a wall and cause a concussion than wear one. I personally know this from experiance as do many other parents of children with autism.
Then perhaps instead of asking for unreasonable accommodations from the community there needs to be looking into the development of a GPS locating device that does not cause sensory issues.
Zach,
I am sorry that you can not spend time with your daughter. However, if you think that there is not a huge difference between knowing you have a healthy, happy daughter in the world that you can’t spend time with and burying a beautiful, brilliant little boy they you are wrong and I pray you never have to find out the difference, because there is one. I would give anything, even letting my son live with strangers and never seeing him again, if only he could live.
You say you are Autistic. Obviously you are high functioning. There are millions of others who are not. There are many, many families who have autistic or otherwise disabled children and adults who wander and do not appreciate the dangers around them.
The Mason Alert is not intended to work like the Amber Alert. I am not even sure where you got that perception. It is meant to be a registry, a tool for parents and authorities, and immediate source of information that First Responders have access to. It is also meant to educate those same authority figures on how to look for and rescue a wandering child or adult before they die.
Death. What an ugly word, especially when you use it in the same sentence as “five year old boy”. I would not wish the agonizing grief I feel on anyone.
Please, instead of trashing us and trying to be negative about something that is meant to save lives, offer something constructive. Make suggestions on how to improve the alert.
I have not lived your life, or walked in your shoes. I do not know what your life is like. I do know how mine is. I know what it is like to spend five years sleeping within a foot of your child because you are afraid he’ll figure out how to get out of the house. I know what it feels like to race home from work, see police standing shouting a non verbal child’s name. I know what it is like to pull up to a pond, one you had repeatedly asked 911 to send officers to, and find not a single one there. I know what it is like to get out of the car, look toward the pond and see your baby floating face down in the water. I know what it is like to pull him from the water and breath into his blue mouth and only water comes out, and I know what it is like to stand over your babies hospital bed begging God not to take him while his heart slowly stops beating.
So, I guess what I am trying to say is, have empathy. Have compassion. We are trying to give meaning to something that has no meaning. We are trying to bring a tiny spark of light to the overwhelming blackness surrounding us right now and we would rather have your help than your anger and bitterness.
Thank you,
Sheila Medlam
While a registry would be a good idea most departments already have this, and it is often shared with other departments in the area. Around here they use I LEADS.
As far as training for first responders, this is already available to departments.
As far as offering suggestion I have done so multiple times.
As far as having empathy I do have it. But I don’t think the system needs to be fixed, I think the system in place needs to be followed. But I’m not going to agree with you just because your child died – thats not empathy thats drinking the kool aid.
You truly are just something else. I think I have wasted more than enough time trying to convince you of why this is needed, but I guess that is a pointless effort so I won’t bother any longer. I will just defer to the thousands of parents of autistic children and other children that wander that are begging for this alert to be put in place. I am sure you think we are all idiots, and the safety net is already in place. Yeah, I can testify to how wonderfully the system works. It’s just marvelous… Ha
So because I disagree with you I’m something else?
The system in place works very well if its followed. Why re-invent the system instead of insisting that the system in place be followed which works for areas that follow it.
I’m sorry your area does not follow that system. I know you want to make a change because of your child’s death and have a legacy for your child – but your cause is just not feasible and will never happen. The system in place works – it just needs to be followed.
I am sure the government would be thrilled with placement for 92% of autistic children that have the tendency to wander! I do not really think that is ever going or should ever happen. As an RN who works with individuals with Developmental Disabilities I know how difficult for one it is to get anyone admitted into any facility, and how costly that is when you do! Talk about a waist of resources! So if you had a 5 year old who you tried everything in the world to keep them safe, but they still managed to get out you are saying you would just drop them off at the nearest state hospital or Mental Health facility? No, I am sure you wouldn’t; also GPS tracking devices only work on those who will wear them. Many children with autism will not due to their sensory issues. Another thing is a lot of people say that this is already out there….check again! It is not in many, many communities; however, there are some states/communities that have gone the extra mile and implemented a lot of what the Mason Alert is pushing for. I suggest everyone call your local emergency preparedness director in the county or state you live in and ask what they do or ask your local police/sheriffs dept. If I was to call 911 for my son the police would not know a thing about them until I told them, but if this alert was in place the program could automatically recognize the address or his name and they would automatically know the information because it would be triggered automatically to pop up on their screen….that could save time, and possibly his his life!! I am completely for this alert, and if you are not then please do not try and prevent us parents who are trying everything in the world to keep our children safe from doing that!
If you would take the time to read you would see that I am saying that there is already a process in place that works. Its sad that sometimes police don’t follow it and thats why parents should insist that they get already available training and use the databases available to police departments already correctly.
Reinventing the wheel is just plain stupid when the wheel works just fine.
I do agree that there is already a process in place like the “Take Me Home Program,” but it is not manditory, and many people do not know about them! This should be manditory! It should, the same way a wheelchair ramp should be manditory or automatic doors or brail on bathroom signs….its an accommodation to many children who have autism, adults who have alzheimers or another cognitive disorders. That insistance you are talking about is the Mason Alert! That is what a parrent is doing! Unfortunatly where she lived it was not in place for her child. Call up the Kansas Emergency Prepairdness Team and ask them what they have in place. Then call all the other states and ask them. It is something that needs to take place everywhere. I hope The Mason Allen Medlam Foundation makes it happen!
Well I really hope it does go thru. I often think we should have a code on license plates for ppl with disabilities such as a child with autism, someone in the car with diabetes etc. You never know what could happen at the time of tragedy.
So shame on you for not wanting this. Most parent’s with special needs child would see this as a huge plus and most would be thrilled.
So if you don’t like it fine but keep your negative opinions to yourself. I sure hope you never lose a child because of a tragedy the way Mason’s family did. They DID everything humanly possible to protect him. Try walking in our shoes then you have the right to your opinion.
Once again… I have lost a child. I’m also autistic myself so I do have a right to an opinion, and even if I didn’t I still have a right to an opinion.
As a parent who has suffered ultimate loss with the death of a child, I feel that I do have extraordinary perspective and frankly, any initiative that has potential for increased safety of vulnerable individuals is positive. I do not see Mason’s Alert as a “reinventing the wheel”, rather distinct, as explained by the family:
How is the Amber Alert different from the Mason Alert?
Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place.
The child must be at risk of serious injury or death.
There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor’s vehicle to issue an alert The child must be 18 years old or younger.
How is the Silver Alert different from the Mason Alert?
Some states limit Silver Alerts to persons over the age of 65, who have been medically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia or similar mental disability.
Other states expand Silver Alert to include all adults with mental or developmental disabilities. In general, the decision to Issue a Silver Alert is made by the law enforcement agency investigating the report of a missing person.
Public information in a Silver Alert usually consists of the name and description of the missing person and a description of the missing person’s vehicle and license plate number.