Why special focus on autism?

By Brett Williams

THEY MIGHT LOOK LIKE THOSE TYPICAL SIGNS THAT TELL A POLICE OFFICER HIS OR HER WITNESS OR SUSPECT IS SKIRTING AROUND THE TRUTH. Things like the failure to look the officer in the eye, rocking back and forth in the interview-room chair, or just plain jumpiness

Coppers’ instinct always kicks in and, in most cases, proves right But, as upper-house MP Emily Bourke explains it, those tell-tale signs can sometimes indicate a condition rather than deception

Autism has been her concern for the past seven months In addition to her role as assistant minister to the premier, she became the assistant minister for autism in August last year. The appointment was a first in Australia and possibly the world.

Her passion now is broadening community knowledge of autism and people who have the condition And she has advice for police who encounter those signs which seem, but are not necessarily, deception.

“A lot of autistic people don’t like making eye contact,” she says. “So, you might be interviewing someone or having a conversation with someone about: ‘What did you see?’ or ‘What happened?’ and they’re not looking at you They’re talking to you whilst looking down

“You might think: ‘They’re not telling the truth,’ or ‘They’re being dismissive (and) not respecting me ’

“So, it’s just understanding that everyone thinks differently Everyone reacts differently to the world around them.

“So don’t necessarily judge someone on their first reaction. Don’t judge someone because they’re not making eye contact, because it might just be that they physically cannot make eye contact ”

Ms Bourke also points to certain aspects of workplace settings and how they can cause some autistic people distress. One of her examples is bright office lights, which might be “paralysing” to an autistic person and render him or her unable to concentrate She speaks of how, with the simple installation of a dimmer switch, that person could go from “unable to work to a person who can attend work every day as a high performer”

“Because,” she says, “you’ve made that workplace more inclusive, and everyone wins ” Another example is the struggle many autistic people have with loud noise and, as a solution, might wear headphones at work .

“But some might see them as listening to music and not actually working,” Ms Bourke laments “It’s really (a case of) understanding and saying: ‘Oh, do you wear headphones because the surrounding noise bothers you?’ ”

Ms Bourke has held dozens of forums to bring to light information about the challenges and needs of the autism community

“I find each and every one of the forums so valuable because I hear a new story but also really consistent stories,” she says “Whether it’s regional or metropolitan, there are key bits of information that are coming up.

“I think the main one is that it all comes back to knowledge You might know the word autism but really not know much about what autism is

“Statistics suggest that 86 per cent of people know the word but only 26 per cent of people know what autism is ”

Ms Bourke hopes to address front-line police who deal directly with autistic people in critical and other incidents on the street

“I’d love to bring autistic people into the room (with me),” she says. “It’s easier for the (autistic) community to say: ‘This is what we experience. This is who we are. Would you have known when I sat down (that I’m autistic)?’ ”

Ms Bourke insists that the figures on autism justify the creation of her role More than 200,000 Australians are autistic and one in four Australians has an autistic family member

Autistic people make up the biggest primary disability group in the NDIS and South Australia sits above the national average. Indeed, 39 per cent of SA NDIS participants are autistic.

And, for the autistic, the likelihood of unemployment is three times greater than it is for other people with disabilities

It is also 10 times greater than it is for nonautistic people

“That can’t continue,” Ms Bourke says “We need to be making sure we’re getting people into the workforce We need to be making sure we’re getting people through school ”

But the story Ms Bourke has heard “time and time again” is of the autistic child whose teacher “didn’t quite understand how to engage” him or her. Seen as badly behaved, that child ends up expelled or excluded, despite his or her willingness to participate.

The Malinauskas government last year committed to formulate the first state autism strategy, based on responses to a three-month period of public consultation

It also pledged to provide funding of $28 8 million to appoint an autism inclusion teacher in every public primary school

“We have to start thinking about how we make our classrooms more inclusive so that we can identify when a child’s becoming overwhelmed,” Ms Bourke says “We’re going to take a teacher out for up to a day a week and start training them.

“And what we’re trying to work through with our new training is: ‘How do we be inclusive from the beginning? How do we create that cultural change? What are we doing to be inclusive from the very beginning?’ ”

The justice system was another issue about which Ms Bourke hoped to get feedback out of the YourSAy consultation

“Because it does come up,” she says, “not only as a witness to a crime (but also when) someone has participated in a crime So, it’s a really important one to be thinking about. ” PJ