Caregivers
Resources for Caregivers
- Each Day: Make sure doors, gates, windows, and garage doors are securely shut.
- Secure yards: Install a fence in your yard if it doesn’t have one and promptly make repairs when needed.
- Create a safety plan: Before an emergency happens, decide as a family how you will get in touch with each other, where you will go, and what you will do in an emergency.
- Complete an emergency card: Several cards may be needed. Put one in the glove compartment of your car, one on your refrigerator, give one to your emergency contact, and provide the school with a copy as well as your local law enforcement.
- Develop search plans: Identify bodies of water near the home (neighbor’s pools, canals, lakes, ponds, intracoastal, etc.) and other places of interest to search in case of wandering.
- Secure bodies of water: Install pool fences with self-latching doors around pools or bodies of water on the property.
- Secure doors and windows: Install door alarms on each door or window in the house: the chimes will alert the people in the house that someone has opened the door/window.
- Display a safety decal: “Autistic Occupant” on the window.
- Consider using visual aids/communication boards: Practice to ensure individuals have a way to communicate their basic needs/wants, express distress, and request help.
- Know wandering triggers: Children with ASD can be impulsive and typically wander or bolt from a safe setting to get to something of interest, such as water, the park or train tracks. Or, they may run off to get away from a situation they find stressful or frightening, such as one with loud noises, commotion or bright lights.
Teach and practice safety procedures.
Help your child/adult with ASD learn how to safely cross the street, following simple commands such as “Stop”.
Talk to trusted neighbors when applicable.
Trusted neighbors can be of assistance in case of an emergency and can be part of a safety plan.
Consider tracking devices or ID tags.
More than 1/3 of children with ASD who wander are never or rarely able to communicate their name, address or phone number. It may be helpful to have things like GPS devices, medical alert tags, and even their name marked inside clothing.
Check out this article for guidelines on what to consider when choosing a tracking device.
How to Choose the Right GPS Tracker for Your Special Needs Child
In Ohio, state IDs and driver’s licenses can have “Autism” placed on them to notify first responders the individual has Autism.
The state of Ohio has Autism license plates that display the Autism ribbon on them. This also helps first responders know that a person with Autism is most likely in the vehicle.
- Collaborate with first responders: Knowing your local law enforcement before an emergency is helpful. If a person goes missing and is familiar with the person, it will help them identify how to best approach them in an emergency.
- Create an emergency information card: Alert local first responders utilizing an emergency information card to give dispatchers pertinent information. (Keep this up to date including a yearly updated photo).
- Notify local first responders that a person with ASD lives in your home. Give first responders a copy of the emergency information card.
- Let First Responders know about the Safety Decal. Share the family search plan with First Responders.
- Ohio’s Endangered Missing Adult and Child Alerts include those individuals with Autism and other developmental disabilities.
- For Summit and Stark County residents, the Take Me Home program allows caregivers to register individuals with Autism into the database. This database is used to help first responders with local missing individuals with Autism and other developmental disabilities.
- Enroll in water safety or swimming lessons to reduce the chances of drowning or teach about water safety. ASGA’s Water Safety Program happens twice a year. Call our HelpLine at (330)-940-1441 ext. 1 for more resources.
- Regularly talk to your child and remind them that there are rules about water. While water is everywhere, it is not safe to go into the water without an adult.
- Use social stories that teach about the dangers of water.
- Periodically speak with neighbors who have pools to make sure fences, gates, and alarms (if an inground pool) are secure and up to date.
- If your person with Autism should wander, check nearby bodies of water first and call 911.
Pool Safety in Ohio
When it comes to water safety and elopement, be sure to talk to your neighbors who have pools and let them know of your concerns.
Ohio requires every private pool to have:
- An inground pool fence separate from the fence in a yard.
- Height of the fence will vary depending on the city or county in Ohio, but normally it is between 40-60 inches high.
- Gate locks should be in working order and lock behind a person when they enter/exit.
- Above-ground pool ladders should be pulled out of the water after each use and should have a lock to prevent access to the pool.
- It is recommended that inground pools have an alarm system in case a person falls into the water when the pool is not in use.
- Keeping lines of communication open with neighbors about Autistic individuals in your home and their safety around neighborhood pools can help reduce the chances of drowning from wandering.
This website is funded in whole or in part through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).
The safety resources and toolkits for Safety on the Spectrum were funded in part or in whole through a grant from the FirstEnergy Foundation. FirstEnergy does not operate, control, is responsible for, or necessarily endorses, this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).
