Dear Alfonso,
I was the one who raised the issue a few months ago and I can share
these few thoughts with you.I received but 6-8 replies to my inquiry and
most had nothing to do with training police officers. As best as I can
recall there is also little/no interest coming out of the national PD
organizations. PWP and the organizations that "support" them are typically
unable or unwilling to promote themselves or their stories. Hense the big
bucks go elsewhere but that is another story.
So how does one gather information about services that may not yet
exist. I tried back tracking through police departments but ran into access
problems and a preoccupation with "Homeland" defenses. Then I thought that
chronicity is chronicity is chronicity. What about other chronic illness?
Here I had some good luck. Under Alzheimer's and Autism I found some
useful information.The people who represent "Comfronting Alzheimer's. A
Guide for Law Enforcement Agencies" have published a 40 page guide complete
with charts done in fine detail.
The Dallas Morning News (http://www.dallasnews.com) published a story
on the death of a 15 year old boy with autism. The Autism Society of America
writes about what a policeman should do when confronting someone they
believe may have autism. Both of these writings have some wonderful detail.
In addition I was able to locate several newspaper with stories about the
police and society.
My bottom line is that while there may be specific information about PD
don't wait,get involved now with your Commission on Disability or/and PD
support group and find out how you may get involved. I have been talking
with my colleagues on the Acton (Massachusetts) Commission on Disability
about doing a workshop for local police and other law enforcement agencies (
state police,probation staff and the like). At this time I am thinking about
sharing the podium with my local police department and other helping agencies.
Good Luck in your search, Alfonso
george
At 10:37 AM 3/13/02 EST, you wrote:
>A little over a month ago, one of the topic was the lack of police training
>for police officers for PWP. I contacted the local Houston Police Dept.
>Community Store Front for a guest speaker for one of the Parkinson Support
>Group meeting. At this time they do not have any trained officers that can
>recognize PWP. The officer I spoke to was very interested in any other Police
>Dept. across the United States that has this type of training for their
>Police Officers. If you can supply me with any information as cities, Police
>Dept., phone numbers, and contact names, this would really help me out
>getting the word out for support training.
>Thank You
>Alfonso Hernandez
>
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