Upper Valley first responders learn to better respond to people with special needs

By LIZ SAUCHELLI

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 12-26-2024 5:02 PM

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Since the start of the year, 137 first responders from Upper Valley communities have taken a new two-hour training program put together by the Special Needs Support Center.

About two dozen of the Lebanon police department’s 35 employees were among those who took part in the training, Lebanon Police Chief Phil Roberts said. Officers from Hanover, Hartford, Hartland, Woodstock and Windsor also participated.

While officers undergo crisis intervention training as part of their jobs, they aren’t taught anything specific to people with special needs.“When we have contact with people of different levels of needs in the community, it’s helpful that we’re trained up on our ability to meet their needs,” Roberts said.

Roberts noted that officers use equipment that can make a lot of noise, from sirens to body cameras to radios. Doing something as simple as turning down the volume on a radio could help put someone with special needs in crisis at ease.

The training was inspired by the Special Needs Information Program, a voluntary database that provides information about people with special needs to police, fire, dispatch and EMS workers. Family members can fill out a form where they can write about their loved one’s triggers and how they respond in crisis.

The database, which has been around since 2018, is used by about two dozen communities covered by Lebanon, Hartford, Windsor and Hanover dispatch services. Fewer than 100 people have registered. People can register at https://snsc-uv.org/programs/special-needs-information-program/

“The only training in the past has been a training of dispatch officers on how to use the database … but we hadn't done training of people to use the database in a way that was really honoring people with disabilities,” Special Needs Support Center Executive Director Kendra LaRoche said.

The majority of the training was spent discussing case studies of someone who is nonverbal, someone with a psychiatric disorder and someone on the autism spectrum. 

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“We had situations, very realistic situations that they would respond to,” said LaRoche, who taught the training programs. “I often played the role of the individual with the disability and had the (participants) respond. After that we talked about what they did well and what they could have improved on.”

One topic of discussion during the training was “stimming,” which is a repetitive set of behaviors that people on the autism spectrum may use to calm themselves. Stims can include pacing, arm waving and other physical movements.

“A stim is never meant to be harmful, that’s not the nature of a stim,” LaRoche said. “If you’ve never been told about it, you don't recognize it for what it is which is the best tool for people to be able to de-escalate themselves.”

The Special Needs Support Center is currently working on creating an online version of the training, LaRoche said. The goal is to have it available within nine months.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.