To serve and protect
An off-duty sheriff ’s deputy was shopping in Walmart when he walked into a frantic scene: a young man sitting in the corner fidgeting with a small toy, surrounded by angry security guards. The guards were yelling at the youth to put his hands behind his back. The young man was crying.
“Step back,” the deputy told the security guards. He asked the youth, “are you stimming?”
The young man nodded yes.
A few more questions, and the deputy had the story: the youth had autism, he had become separated from his father in the store, he was frightened, and he had grabbed the toy to soothe himself. When the panicked father appeared, peace was restored.
How did the deputy correctly assess the situation?
He had taken a 40-hour training program on crisis intervention that includes a workshop on developmental disability and communication led by Susan Kahan, DHD clinical staff member and clinician in the UIC Developmental Disabilities Family Clinic.
Before taking the training, the deputy had never heard of stimming (self-stimulatory behavior, repetitive motions or actions that people with developmental disability sometimes use for calming). Like the security guards, he would have assumed the young man was resisting.
There are so many cases where things go horribly wrong because a behavior that’s born of mental illness, developmental disability or trauma is mistaken for being oppositional or defiant, says Kahan.
Kahan, a licensed clinical professional counselor, is a go-to expert whose work focuses on crisis and trauma related to children and adults with developmental disabilities.
As a consultant at the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center—a nonprofit that responds to reports of child sexual and/or physical abuse, witness to violence and other serious maltreatment—she advises forensic interviewers, detectives, assistant states attorneys, child protection services investigators and others on cases with survivors and witnesses who have developmental disabilities.
“Susan has been an incredible asset to the staff of the Chicago CAC,” says Carmel Browne, director of MDT Coordination at the center, citing Kahan’s “understanding of development disorders and working with individuals with complex challenges due to special needs.”
Kahan conducts sessions on crisis intervention and DD for law enforcement officers through the Cook County Sheriff ’s Department and the Chicago Police Department, as well as at national and international symposiums.