Help for autistic child

Dear editor

I am hoping you can help me. My husband James (Ned) Niederer is an officer on Sturt patrols. Our four-year-old son, Callum, was diagnosed with autism 18 months ago. I was wondering whether there are any other police families with autistic children. I would love to hear from any of them just to see how they go about helping their children. Please let me know if you can help.
Thanks
Jenni Niederer

Police culture

Dear Andy

Tragedy has befallen many of our fellow police officers over recent years. By tragedy, I refer, of course, to the devastating loss of life through illness, accident and even suicide.

The emotional cost to families, friends and work colleagues cannot be measured. A far greater number still walk among us having endured other personal tragedies, such as relationship breakups, financial hardship, and a myriad of other problems encountered in everyday life.

Our wonderful police culture is a fantastic resource in times of personal emergency, as portrayed in the Mick Nasalik story, His toughest-ever challenge (Police Journal, December 2002).

But it (the culture) has, in the past, also had a lot for which to answer. I refer specifically to that aspect of the culture which dictated that, to be human, and therefore also exhibit human emotions and frailties, was basically tantamount to one’s relegation to the outer.

Any outward sign of “weakness” or vulnerability immediately consigned a person to the social and professional dungeon. Our members, of course, being the scholarly types our institution has taught them to be, soon learnt that to err was to be human but to be human was not to be accepted. This left the majority to suffer through life’s perils in silence. This, ultimately, I contend, may have contributed in some cases to the tragedies outlined in my opening paragraph.

Thankfully, people within the police organization are coming to realize that this aspect of our culture is more damaging to our health and wellbeing than any low-life types we might encounter on the streets.

To my fellow supervisors, and superiors, I say this: take the time to get to know your people. Listen to them instead of just speaking at them, and provide them the same courtesy, empathy and understanding as you require them to show the community. Allow them, and even encourage them, to be human.

This dark side of our past still exists in some places, although fortunately not to the degree that it once did. Perhaps we can remember this – along with our fallen colleagues – and allow it to become their legacy.
Ian Bos
Senior Constable
Holden Hill Patrols