Autism Ontario endorses the recent report by Autism Alliance of Canada, “What We Heard: Building a Safer Emergency Response When People Go Missing.” Wandering, or “elopement,” is a significant safety concern within the autism community, particularly following the tragic death of autistic child Parker Wells whose loss deeply impacted his family and communities across Canada.
This report identifies priorities for strengthening emergency response when a missing person faces an immediate risk of serious harm. These priorities resulted from a national roundtable with autistic people and families, first responders and emergency experts, disability and community advocates, and government leaders, including Autism Ontario’s Marg Spoelstra, Chief Executive Officer, and Amanda Dimilta, Chief Advocacy, Policy and Community Engagement Officer. The discussion invited different forms of expertise and experience to generate a more holistic view of emergency and community responses when autistic people go missing.
Autism Ontario will continue to support strengthening coordinated emergency responses, ensuring that any planning, implementation, and monitoring must include autistic people and intersectional perspectives; respect the privacy and agency of the missing person; and include appropriate training for before, during, and after an emergency alert is initiated.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Autism Alliance of Canada and participating organizations to strengthen community responses to bring missing autistic people home safely.
Read the full report here.
For more information, please email Autism Ontario’s media team at media@autismontario.com.
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About Autism Ontario
Autism Ontario is the province’s leading source of information and referral on autism whose mandate is to build a supportive and inclusive Ontario for autism. It provides autistic individuals and families across their life course with community-based access to meaningful supports, social learning opportunities, information, and connections. The organization’s commitment to significantly and positively impacting the autism community is driven by its vision: Best life, better world, making autism matter!