Let’s talk about restraints. (Full disclosure, I have done time in restraints. I have been bound.)
Restraints in autism are controversial and for good reason. I can tell you from personal experience they are unpleasant. There are many kinds of restraints. Aside from the obvious, there are also chemical restraints, and restraints such as a jail cell. Full disclosure, I have been restrained this way as well. But no it wasn’t jail.
When it comes to autism, some people say sometimes restraints are necessary as a last option. Others say they should never be used at all no matter what. Breaking from the pack, the JRC doesn’t seem to have a problem with them at all. In my own work, I did reluctantly use them (or approve their use) once or twice. It was not something I wanted to do having gone through my own experience, yet I truly didn’t see any other option at the time. I was looking at it mostly from a safety perspective. Not only the person’s safety but the safety of the people and property around him. As I have said before, safety is paramount. That’s basic advocacy 101. I got them out as soon as it was safe to do so and to this day I really wish things had gone differently.
In a perfect world, restraints would not be necessary. They would never have been invented or even considered or thought of in so much as a passing flight of fancy. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where sometimes people get violent. This can include people with autism. I can give a real world example. Just after SWCTL was released, I spoke at a conference for the Autism Society of illinois and I got to know a mother and son in Fox Lake. I spent a lot of time with them. It was kind of like that situation below in New York in that I was invited to the home for a few days. (That happened a lot in my travels. I have more stories to share about this at some point. For instance remind me to tell you about the nice lady who spilled coffee all over the brand new Schoolhouse Rock shirt I was wearing just before I was scheduled to keynote a conference in Maine. And that’s not all. I got 30 years of advocacy stories yet to tell you. I really need to start posting them.) In this case, I was able to keep going back to visit over the years because I could drive there. The son was young and wonderful in the beginning. He was severe and didn’t talk much but he found his own ways to communicate and he was calm and happy (always happy – always happy) and just lots of fun to hang out with and be around. Puberty hit and all that changed. He grew like a weed and turned violent. The only other one there was his mother. This once innocent and happy boy outgrew her and started beating the crap out of her. There was absolutely nothing she could do. Eventually he ended up in an institution. It was a bad situation all around. I could give you a few real world examples from my own sordid past as well, but I will spare you (and myself) the agony.
A more current controversy is restraints in the classroom. There was an incident in VA back when I was living there in which a child with autism was in a classroom that had a small time out room. The child misbehaved and the teacher placed him in the room and locked the door. When the parents found out about it, they went ballistic, screamed at the school, and called the media. The media had a field day reporting it on the local news.
Like with so many other things involving autism, I have been on both sides of this, so I am in the unique position where I can see both sides of this. I don’t like them, and I really wish we never needed them, but if the individual is violent and not responding to anything else you try, what other option is there?
If any of you have experience with restraints, or if you have an alternative to restraints when all else fails, please post in the comments. It is unlikely I will ever have occasion to have the authority to use restraints on someone ever again (and believe me I am well okay with that). But if I do, I would love to have options.