Sensory kits to help responders calm those affected by autism
Until Wednesday, Portage Fire Department Assistant Chief Dan Kodicek said first responders didn’t have the tools to communicate with someone on the autism spectrum.
First responders often found themselves taking a child “kicking and screaming” out of a home, at the risk of injuries to all, because of the lack of communication, Kodicek said.
“There was nothing but take them for the ER or a social worker to take care of it,” and deal with any underlying medical issues later, he said.
Now first responders who serve Portage Township, as well as the Portage Township schools, have autism sensory kits to help calm and communicate with children and adults with autism.
Portage Township officials hope the kits, which include training for first responders, will become similar to the Porter County Sheriff’s Department’s “One County, One Protocol” for handling crises in the county’s schools by standardizing training and procedures and also hope the program becomes a prototype for use statewide.
Representatives from the Porter County Sheriff’s Department, Portage Police and Fire departments, Ogden Dunes Police and Fire departments, South Haven Fire Department and Portage Township schools received 171 kits Wednesday.
The agencies, along with Porter
County Central Communications, formed the Portage Township Autism Action Coalition last year to discuss what first responders need when interacting with people, especially children, diagnosed on the autism spectrum, officials said.
“We were looking at different programs in different areas. I was actually pretty moved by how many people autism affects,” Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy said.
One in 59 people are diagnosed on the autism spectrum, said Joyce Russell, community outreach and communications coordinator for the township, and as of last school year, 200 students in the Portage Township schools have been diagnosed on the spectrum. That doesn’t include preschool-age children or young adults, she added.
Shortly after Russell began coordinating the coalition’s efforts for the township, she learned that her 4year-old grandson Dylan, who lives in Indianapolis, had been diagnosed with autism, putting a personal focus on her efforts.
“To have the tools to interact with kids on the spectrum is important to Brendan and it’s important to me,” she said. Russell said the township raised $10,350 from local businesses to put together the kits and will be looking for grants and additional funding to replenish the supplies in them as needed.
The kits include sunglasses and sound-muffling headphones, for people on the autism spectrum who are sensitive to light or sound; a dry-erase board to assist in nonverbal communication; and an assortment of fidget toys including stress balls and other small items.
The kits also offer autism awareness stickers, shaped like four interlocking puzzle pieces, to be placed on the windows of cars and homes.
“That way, every police officer, every firefighter knows they’re going to a home with someone with autism,” Russell said.
Another component of the program is identification bracelets with unique codes that parents can register. If a child wanders off and is picked up by a first responder, they can look up the code and find contact information and background on the child to learn “that’s Joey Smith, he likes trains” and what calms the child down, Russell said.
Kodicek said his brother Matt, a lieutenant with the Crown Point Fire Department, put together sensory kits for his department, which is where Kodicek got the idea.
“This takes it a lot further,” he said.