Joel Lashley
Combining personal and professional experience to help patients and families

Joel Lashley knows security.

Before he was 20, he started his career as a security officer at an Oak Creek power plant to pay for college at Carthage College and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Since then, Lashley has gained more than 17 years of experience in health care security, having worked for St. Joseph's Hospital in Milwaukee before coming to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in 1998.

When Lashley saw a gap in how autistic patients were treated in security-related situations, he used his expertise to create a new way of approaching situations, developing a protocol that is rapidly being adopted by other institutions.

"When I found out there was little information available on this topic, I knew I had to investigate further," said Lashley, senior security officer. "Not having a better way
to do this was just not an acceptable answer. At Children's Hospital, we're not comfortable with the status quo, so I had to find a way to make it better."

Lashley knows all too well the different ways patients with autism respond to situations. Colin, Lashley's son, has a pervasive developmental disorder, a form of autism. Colin, 22, has taught Lashley that people with autistic disorders have a very distinct way of responding to verbal cues.

An autistic person may have problems with nonverbal communication. In a typical encounter, 93 percent of the communication consists of nonverbal cues, such as body language and tone. An autistic person probably will not understand these cues. A person with autism also takes about 11 seconds to process information – a
long time in a security situation.

A security situation typically includes loud voices, sirens and exaggerated movements. These are triggers for people with autism to become frightened, further escalating a risky encounter.

Lashley took what he learned from Colin and his expertise in security to create a protocol to help first responders better manage patients with autism. The Autism Direction Cycle includes dealing with speech, nonverbal communication and direction.

Soon, with the help of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Department and Educational Services at Children's Hospital, Lashley and Norah Johnson, a clinical nurse specialist whose son also has autism, created presentations, videos and online education to help spread the message. They engaged other experts who could help them understand the multiple touch points that could potentially impact a patient in a negative way. Since there are so many layers to the misunderstandings around autism, they created a committee that meets regularly to continue to develop new training materials for anyone who could have contact with a child or an adult with autism.

Lashley not only brought this revolutionary model to Children's Hospital, he also is
bringing it to the community. He trains with and offers expertise to the members of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Academy. He is a guest speaker for health care professionals. He also writes articles for a Web site dedicated to correctional facility employees. Wherever Lashley goes, people always ask, "How can we learn more?"

Lashley's next step is to attend a certification class for autism recognition and response, a new program mandated in Illinois for police trainers. Lashley is working on similar legislation for Wisconsin. Through this, he can continue to enhance the way first responders interact with people with autism. "When people feel safe, they can provide better care," said Lashley. "If you can serve your most vulnerable patients, you will be a better provider for everybody."