The Mason Alert and Summer Safety For Kids With Autism

The Mason Alert and Summer Safety For Kids With Autism

In recent years, initiatives have taken shape to try and protect individuals with autism or other conditions that lead to wandering, including:

1. AWAARE (Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Education), was launched by a cooperation of six major autism advocacy groups to increase public understanding of autism-related wandering and reduce the number of fatalities associated with wandering.

2. Project Lifesaver, technology and education dedicated to improving safe outcomes for wandering children and adults. From their mission statement:

Project Lifesaver develops public outreach programs to educate others about the issue of wandering, and they constantly work toward developing public policy and effective law enforcement response to help save lives and "bring loved ones home."

3. Mason Allen Medlam Foundation, founded last year by Sheila and Kenneth Medlam's who lost their 5-year-old autistic son, Mason, to wandering-related drowning. The Medlam Foundation lobbies the United States Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and Congress to establish the Mason Alert, a national wandering child alert program run much like the Amber Alert program for suspected child abductions.