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New Alert Card for Autistic People Launched!

17th November 2020

You can now get a new Autistic Person Alert Card

Our new Autism Alert card is to help autistic people disclose their autism diagnosis to others when in difficult or emergency situations.

The Alert Card has been produced in collaboration with West Midlands, West Mercia, Staffordshire and Warwickshire Police Forces and British Transport Police. The credit-card style card will alert police, emergency services and security personnel to the fact that the person is autistic and they may have difficulty with communication or display unpredictable behaviour in a challenging situation. The card also provides details of an emergency contact for the person.

Someone holding an Autistic Person Alert Card
Image of the front and back side of the Alert Card

Hilary McGlynn, Operations Manager at Autism West Midlands said “Autism Alert Cards provide peace of mind for autistic young people and adults when out in the community and can help the individual and emergency workers communicate effectively”

Lillie Abbott, the chairwoman of Enable – a support network for disabled officers and staff in West Midlands Police – welcomed the cards. “We have lots of people in the force who have autism, including police officers, so we’re all too aware of the way the condition impacts on people differently,” she said.
“The cards will give the carrier confidence and help our people to quickly understand that they may need to adapt their approach or give some additional support.”

Sgt Zoey Carter, Chair for West Mercia Police Autism Network and West Mercia Police Lead Coordinator for the National Police Autism Association (NPAA) said: “I am so excited to help highlight autism within our force, helping to provide better service and support to people within our communities who are on the autism spectrum and their families. Alongside this, we are also issuing guidance to our officers and staff on what to do if they encounter an individual with autism, whether they have an alert card or not, setting out how the person may react in challenging situations where the emergency services are involved, what officers and staff can do to help and what actions to avoid escalating the situation.”

Close up of the alert card

Visit the page to find more information and to apply for a card:

Apply for a card

It gets better!

We also now have a free downloadable alert card for parent carers of autistic children.

You can download the file to print out a colour foldable card (credit card sized) with space for emergency contacts to be added, or an image formatted for most phone screens that can be kept on your phone. Please see the above link for these too.

 

Image of the front and back side of the Parents Alert Card and the phone version

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