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Jan. 9—When someone goes missing, search teams such as Berks County Search and Rescue use evidence-based methods to find them.
If you stay where you are, you'll eventually hear the rescuers calling your name and they'll find you, the literature and training informs them.
But some of these methods and strategies can be counterproductive in finding individuals with autism.
Brian Winterstein, chief of Berks County Search and Rescue Inc., was surprised to discover a blind spot in his decades of training and study of literature on lost-person behavior.
Noisy off-road vehicles, bright lights and yelling by strangers might be effective tools in the search for lost or wandering people without sensory sensitivities, but not people with autism. On the contrary, it might drive them further into seclusion.
"We had no idea that noises, lights and things like that would drive them farther away," Winterstein said.
Quite a few people who go lost or missing have autism or diminished mental capacity, said Scott Hertzog, board president of Berks County Search and Rescue Inc.
Thanks to recently completed autism-specific training, the team has more tools in its arsenal to deal with people with autism and mental impairments such as dementia.
The all-volunteer emergency services unit, which formed in 2019, achieved the designation as a certified autism center in late November after all 20 of its members passed the training from the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards.
In achieving this certification, team members underwent specialized training in autism awareness, communication strategies and understanding sensory sensitivities.
Hertzog described the online training involving videos and interactive scenarios as thorough and challenging.
"We're very proud that everyone who took the training passed it," Hertzog said recently in announcing the milestone at the United Way of Berks County home at 25 N. Second St. "Families with members on the autism spectrum can now trust that our team is prepared to understand and address the unique needs of their loved ones during search and rescue missions."
First steps
The group's journey began early in 2023 when members received training hosted by Easter Seals of Eastern Pennsylvania. They heard from representatives of Superheroes for Autism, a local nonprofit that conducts autism-friendly events to provide families of children with autism opportunities to socialize.
Superheroes representatives helped them better understand the need to use a modified approach when dealing with a person with autism who has wandered off.
"When we first met with them we were just talking about a toolbox — a weighted blanket, toys, Legos, something to calm them down just like when I'm taking my son to an event," said Superheroes representative Deneida Perez, whose son has autism.
The search group immediately put that suggestion into practice, equipping command unit vehicles with kits that include those items as well as communication cards and backpacks to assist in comforting the person once found. The communication cards are useful with a nonverbal individual, Perez explained.
Perez said it has been invaluable for her group to form a relationship with the search organization so they can share their knowledge and experience.
"Having that background in autism is so meaningful," she said. "They (search team members) have a base understanding of what we could be working with — whether they (lost people with autism) are combative, they're nonverbal and whether they're aggressive because they think you're there to hurt them rather than save them."
The search team later discovered the autism-specific training and certification offered by IBCCES and decided it was worth going down that road to better serve the community.
Finding the money
With the team funded entirely by donations, however, the $3,500 fee to have its 20 members complete the training was out of reach.
The United Way of Berks County stepped in to identify grants.
The group's effort to serve a more diverse community qualified for a Live United Grant. The one-time grant is administered by the United Way to community-based organizations for creative projects that bring together and improve the quality of life for Berks Countians.
The only hurdle was the search team had no experience applying for grants.
"The paperwork was very complicated," Hertzog said. "We worked diligently at it. By July, we had all of the paperwork submitted."
The grant was approved in late October, and all members had successfully completed the training by the end of November.
Raising its profile
If you've never heard of Berks County Search and Rescue, you're not alone.
The team is dispatched as Station 2 on the Berks County Department of Emergency Services' 911 system roster of emergency service units. It was the first addition to the list in decades, Hertzog said.
Leaders are trying to raise the group's profile so its services are requested sooner.
Representatives of the group met with the Berks County Chiefs of Police Association to let them know of the service's existence and the tools it has, Hertzog said.
The search team doesn't have to work in isolation.
"We do enjoy working with fire departments and police because it increases the numbers (manpower) we take with us," Hertzog said.
Hertzog, who is the unit's drone pilot, said team members have dozens if not hundreds of hours of training. Most of them are not part of another emergency services unit; most are former Boy Scouts who enjoy the outdoors and helping people.
The team uses a scientific approach, Hertzog said.
With the autism-specific training, it is equipped to use best practices in searching for people sensory needs.
"A little phrase we picked up through all our training is, 'If you have met one autistic person, you have met one autistic person,'" Hertzog said. "No two are alike, no two share the same personality traits. That makes it very difficult for people like us to find them.
"Now we have more tools in our arsenal."
