Evaluating the Autistic Missing Persons Protocol www.abertay.ac.u k
Contact s.donaldson1600@abertay.ac.uk Background
Susan Donaldson School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University Supervisors: Dr. Penny Woolnough and Dr. Lynn Wright.
Study Aims
• Over 30,000 episodes of going missing reported to Police Scotland every year.
• Conduct an evaluation of the Autistic Missing Persons Protocol
• 62% of missing investigations are for children and young people.
• Help inform decisions regarding the protocol’s future roll-out across Police Scotland
• Up to 80% of adults who go missing have metal health conditions (National Missing Persons Framework, 2017).
• The evaluation will specifically consider guardian/family/carer perspectives in terms of user friendliness of the form and how readily the information required to complete the form can be retrieved
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder (Rice et al., 2016), • Categorised by difficulties in social communication and interaction along with sensory differences, repetitive behaviours and restricted interests (Palmer et al., 2020) • Globally 1 in 100 children will be diagnosed with ASD (Zeidan et al, 2022). • Anderson et al. (2012) - 53% of 1,218 children with ASD had a history of elopement • Elopement peaked age 5.4 years. • Suggestion elopement is a chronic condition which can last into the mid 20’s (Murphy et al.. 2005) • Elopement behaviour is where a dependent person leaves a supervised space exposing himself or herself to danger, common among children with ASD. • Estimated 50% of all autistic children will elope at least once (Anderson et al., 2012)
• The project will evaluate the wider emotional and personal experiences of completing the form
Method Study Two • Aim to interview eight to ten people over the age of 18 years old about their experience of completing the AMPP • Purposeful sample (interviewing guardians, parents and carers of individuals who have ASD and have the potential to or have eloped/gone missing) • Potential participants will logically come from the sample of participants who have already completed the form for study one
Method Study One • Aim to collect 30 completed Autistic Missing Persons Protocol forms • The 30 participants required will be over 18 years and guardians, parents or carers, some of whom may be police officers, of individuals with ASD • Purposeful sample will be used as all participants will complete the Autistic Missing Persons Protocol form (as the individual they are completing the form about may have eloped/gone missing or have the potential to elope/go missing) Figure 1: AMPP form example
Next Steps Study One • Evaluation of the 30 completed forms is underway • Will specifically consider guardian/family/carer perspectives of how user friendly the form is • Examine how readily the information required to complete the form can be retrieved • Analysis of forms will provide new knowledge Study two • To be conducted when study one is complete
Autistic Missing Persons Protocol • Developed by Police Scotland • Pilot launched in October 2020
• Focus on analysing the interview responses of participants • Explore the overall experience of completing the form.
• Information gathering tool to assist police officers when searching for a person with ASD who has been reported missing • 11-page document containing 13 sections completed by a parent, guardian, or carer of the person • Advertised using social media, forms can be downloaded from Police Scotland’s website (add web address here). Also circulated to schools and 3rd sector groups • In early stages of distribution therefore little is known about its effectiveness or user friendliness
References Anderson, C., Law, J. K., Daniels, A., Rice, C., Mandell, D. S., Hagopian, L., & Law, P. A. (2012). Occurrence and family children with autism spectrum disorders. Paediatrics, (130), 870-887. https://doi:10.1542/peds.2012-0762
impact of elopement in
Matson, J. L., Rivet, T. T. (2008). Characteristics of challenging behaviours in adults with autistic disorder, PDD-NOS, Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 33(4), 323-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668250802492600
andintellectual disability.
Murphy, G. H., Beadle-Brown, J., Wing, L., Gould, J., Shah, A., & Holmes, N. (2005). Chronicity of Challenging Behaviours in People with Severe Intellectual Disabilities and/ or Autism: A Total Population Sample. Journal of Autism Dev Disord, 35, 405-418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-005-5030-2 Palmer, N., Caceres, A. SJ., Tarver, J., Howlin, P., Slonims, V., Pellicano, E., & Charman, T. (2020). Feasability study of the National Autistic Society EarlyBird parent support programme. Autism, 24(1), 147-159 Rice, C. E., Zablotsky, B., Avila, R. M., Colpe, L. J., Schieve, L. A., Pringle, B., & Blumberg, S. J. (2016) Reported wandering behavior among children with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability. The Journal of paediatrics, 174, 232-239 Scottish Government.(2017). National Missing Persons Framework for Scotland.
Method Study O
Zeiden, J., Fombonne, E., Scorah, J., Ibrahim, A., Durkin, M.S., Saxena, S., Yusuf, A., Shih, A., & Elsabbagh, M. (2022). Global prevalence of autism: A systematic review update. Autism Research, 15,778-790.
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