Emergency service experiences of adults with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability

Tint, Ami; Palucka, Anna M.; Bradley, Elspeth; Weiss, Jonathan A.; Lunsky, Yona

doi:10.1177/1362361318760294

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, currently there exists no alternative theoretically driven, legally appropriate interview framework to elicit more complete and accurate information about what they have experienced. This is concerning because autistic individuals are disproportionately more likely to be questioned by police than TD individuals ( Brown-Lavoie et al, 2014 ; Chaplin & Mukhopadhyay, 2018 ; Heeramun et al, 2017 ; Lindblad & Lainpelto, 2011 ; Rava et al, 2017 ; Tint et al, 2017 , 2019 ; Weiss & Fardella, 2018 ). The aim of this research was to test a novel interview technique that offered autistic individuals support in a way that guided them more concretely through their recall attempts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Core characteristics of ASD, such as difficulty in gauging social interactions and understanding the thoughts and intentions of others, have been linked to an increased risk of coming into contact with police as a victim/witness 1 or suspect (e.g. Brown-Lavoie et al, 2014 ; Chaplin & Mukhopadhyay, 2018 ; Heeramun et al, 2017 ; Lindblad & Lainpelto, 2011 ; Rava et al, 2017 ; Tint et al, 2017 , 2019 ; Weiss & Fardella, 2018 ). However, knowledge is currently limited regarding how best to interview autistic individuals in order to elicit the most complete and accurate information about what they have experienced.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Witness-Aimed First Account (WAFA): A new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses and victims

Maras

Dando

Stephenson

et al. 2020

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Autistic people experience social communication difficulties alongside specific memory difficulties than impact their ability to recall episodic events. Police interviewing techniques do not take account of these differences, and so are often ineffective. Here we introduce a novel Witness-Aimed First Account interview technique, designed to better support autistic witnesses by diminishing socio-cognitive and executive demands through encouraging participants to generate and direct their own discrete, parameter-bound event topics, before freely recalling information within each parameter-bound topic. Since witnessed events are rarely cohesive stories with a logical chain of events, we also explored witnesses’ recall when the narrative structure of the to-be-remembered event was lost. Thirty-three autistic and 30 typically developing participants were interviewed about their memory for two videos depicting criminal events. Clip segments of one video were ‘scrambled’, disrupting the event’s narrative structure; the other video was watched intact. Although both autistic and typically developing witnesses recalled fewer details with less accuracy from the scrambled video, Witness-Aimed First Account interviews resulted in more detailed and accurate recall from autistic and typically developing witnesses, for both scrambled and unscrambled videos. The Witness-Aimed First Account technique may be a useful tool to improve autistic and typically developing witnesses’ accounts within a legally appropriate, non-leading framework. Lay abstract Autistic people may be more likely to be interviewed by police as a victim/witness, yet they experience social communication difficulties alongside specific memory difficulties that can impact their ability to recall information from memory. Police interviewing techniques do not take account of these differences, and so are often ineffective. We developed a new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses, referred to a Witness-Aimed First Account, which was designed to better support differences in the way that autistic witnesses process information in memory. The Witness-Aimed First Account technique encourages witnesses to first segment the witnessed event into discrete, parameter-bound event topics, which are then displayed on post-it notes while the witness goes onto freely recall as much information as they can from within each parameter-bound topic in turn. Since witnessed events are rarely cohesive stories with a logical chain of events, we also explored autistic and non-autistic witnesses’ recall when the events were witnessed in a random (nonsensical) order. Thirty-three autistic and 30 typically developing participants were interviewed about their memory for two videos depicting criminal events. Clip segments of one video were ‘scrambled’, disrupting the event’s narrative structure; the other video was watched intact. Although both autistic and non-autistic witnesses recalled fewer details with less accuracy from the scrambled video, Witness-Aimed First Account interviews resulted in more detailed and accurate recall from both autistic and non-autistic witnesses, for both scrambled and unscrambled videos. The Witness-Aimed First Account technique may be a useful tool to improve witnesses’ accounts within a legally appropriate, non-leading framework.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Witness-Aimed First Account (WAFA): A new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses and victims

Maras

Dando

Stephenson

et al. 2020

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our study has both strengths and weaknesses. While many studies detail the reasons for contact (Copenhaver and Tewksbury, 2019) or the outcomes of and satisfaction with contact (Tint et al, 2017(Tint et al, , 2019, few studies report on what is happening inside police encounters generally. Relatedly, information on police contact with autistic individuals is sparse, and of the studies that do exist are usually limited to adult autistic individuals (Railey et al, 2020;Salerno and Schuller, 2019;Tint et al, 2017Tint et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While many studies detail the reasons for contact (Copenhaver and Tewksbury, 2019) or the outcomes of and satisfaction with contact (Tint et al, 2017(Tint et al, , 2019, few studies report on what is happening inside police encounters generally. Relatedly, information on police contact with autistic individuals is sparse, and of the studies that do exist are usually limited to adult autistic individuals (Railey et al, 2020;Salerno and Schuller, 2019;Tint et al, 2017Tint et al, , 2019. Our study is the first to report behaviors displayed by Autism-related behaviors in police encounters autistic individuals during a police encounter on a larger scale, capturing a vast age range from preschool age children to adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The frequency and clustering of autism-related behaviors during encounters between the police and the autism community

Wallace

Herbert

Hassrick

et al. 2022

PIJPSM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis paper intends to examine the behaviors autistic individuals display during police encounters, determine if there are differences in those behaviors by age and gender, then examine if any behaviors cluster or frequently co-occur.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from the Survey of Parents and Caregivers of Individuals with autism spectrum disorder and focusing on a subsample of respondents who report that their autistic loved one has had prior police contact, the authors examine the frequency and clustering of behaviors displayed by autistic individuals during police encounters. The authors use chi-square tests of independence to examine age and gender differences and latent class analysis to assess behavioral clustering.FindingsThe findings show that many behaviors that autistic individuals display during police encounters are associated with social communication and interaction difficulties, such as failure to maintain eye contact and difficulty answering questions. Many of these overlap with police training on deception, compliance and passive resistance. Moreover, the authors find that there are age differences in two behaviors, fidgeting and not responding to one's name. Lastly, the authors find that many of these behaviors cluster in unexpected ways, adding a layer of complexity to encounters between the police and autistic individuals.Originality/valueTraining police officers, autistic individuals and their loved ones on interactions with the police is critical for positive outcomes. Without details on what occurs inside a police encounter, constructing those trainings is difficult. While this study provides only a small glimpse into police encounters with the autistic community, it is a first step toward understanding these multifaceted interactions better.

show abstract

“…Our findings suggest that it is imperative to regularly screen for STB when an autistic individual presents to ED. Regularly screening for STB is important as STB has been reported to be the most common psychiatric presentation for autistic adults (Lunsky et al, 2017, Tint et al, 2019 in this particular region where the study was conducted. Screening for STB during ED visits serves as an important opportunity for suicidal risk reduction as autistic children (Kalb et al, 2012) and adults (Vohra et al, 2017) are more likely to visit an ED than non-autistic people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours Among Autistic Adults Presenting to the Psychiatric Emergency Department: An Exploratory Chart Review

Jachyra

Lai

Zaheer

et al. 2021

J Autism Dev Disord

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite increasing attention on suicidality in autistic people, we know little about suicidal presentations when autistic individuals present to hospital emergency departments (ED). We conducted an exploratory retrospective chart review of suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STB) of autistic adults who presented to a psychiatric ED. The analysis included 16 charts over a 10-week period. Findings highlight that reported STB were not always the presenting issue. Life transitions and interpersonal conflicts were common antecedents, and active rumination about STB was distressing and fatiguing. Findings imply that ED visits serve as important opportunities for suicidal risk reduction for autistic individuals, through implementation of strategies for identification of STB such as active screening, and the provision of suicide resources tailored to autistic people.

show abstract

Emergency service experiences of adults with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability

Cited by 17 publications

References 14 publications

The Witness-Aimed First Account (WAFA): A new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses and victims

The Witness-Aimed First Account (WAFA): A new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses and victims

The frequency and clustering of autism-related behaviors during encounters between the police and the autism community

Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours Among Autistic Adults Presenting to the Psychiatric Emergency Department: An Exploratory Chart Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About