A decade in the past, younger Melbourne man James Sayers spent an evening in a drunk tank at an area police station after he was arrested for allegedly being drunk and disorderly in public.
But Mr Sayers, who you may know as Ninja Twitch from the hit Nine present Ninja Warrior, was stone-cold sober, and the arresting officers usually are not essentially accountable for combine up.
He lives with Tourette syndrome and remembers the incident with the police nicely.
“I was locked up and charged for being drunk in a public place. And I was zero (BAC),” he informed news.com.au.
He mentioned he knew he was sober, claiming to have solely had one beer with a meal two just a few hours prior.
As Mr Sayers and a pal waited for a taxi, they had been approached by police who heavy-handedly processed him as if he had been intoxicated – and this simply made issues worse.
“I started tic’ing even more, especially after I was cuffed, and the officer didn’t seem to listen or believe me when I said I have TS,” he says.
“It was an awful experience, and we spent the whole night in a cell, and we were charged.”
An evening in a cell and a $400 high quality later, Mr Sayers left the station with a quick mistrust of authorities, although he has since accepted and embraced the truth that individuals are typically confronted when somebody with TS has a tic.
The neurological dysfunction is commonly characterised by speedy and involuntary muscle and vocal expression – often referred to as tics.
He described it because the “ultimate big red button” dysfunction.
“If someone says ‘don’t touch the big red button’, someone with TS is going to smash that thing,” Mr Sayers defined.
“If there’s a remark or an intrusive thought, like, ‘Oh, my God, imagine if I yelled out pig’ – with someone with TS, if you don’t do that, it’s so hard to suppress it.”
In his early 30s now, Mr Sayer has leaned into TS advocacy and relishes the chance to vary perceptions of the dysfunction.
“When you’ve got someone like a first responder that has to be so vigilant, it is so understandable these can happen,” he mentioned.
“But this is the way Tourette’s works, and we need the education to let them know how it feels to have Tourette’s, or even advocates like me, to create a program that will de-escalate an initial interaction, as opposed to it resulting in a charge and violence that didn’t have to happen.
“Tourette’s is unusual, and people are going to react. That might be staring. It might be asking questions, again, with the individual. It can be done in the right way or the wrong way – and we all make mistakes. “
Mr Sayers said his experience is in line with the newly released research, which has revealed that one in five Australians assumed a person behaving ‘erratically’ in public was drunk.
The Tourette syndrome Association of Australia (TSAA) revealed misconceptions about Tourette syndrome (TS) are prevalent not just among the general public but also among first responders.
The study found that people living with TS often have negative experiences with first responders, with 24 per cent of those with TS having had a negative encounter with a paramedic and 29 per cent with police.
The research, released during Tourette syndrome Awareness Week (May 1-7), revealed that misconceptions about TS extend beyond first responders, with 49 per cent of those in the TS community reporting that members of the public stare at them and 62 per cent saying people are unsure of how to respond to their tics.
In addition, 32 per cent of Australians have made assumptions about someone exhibiting tic’ing behaviour.
The experiences of the TS community compared to the general population are starkly different, with 14 per cent of the TS community describing their interactions with first responders as traumatic and another 14 per cent describing their experiences as shameful.
This is in contrast to the majority of Australians (96 per cent) who report positive experiences with first responders.
The research also found that 20 per cent of people with TS say first responders have confused tic’ing behaviour with being on drugs, while almost a third (29 per cent) say they confused tics with erratic or violent behaviour.
Such misunderstandings have led 12 per cent of people with TS to feel they were treated like criminals for tic’ing.
TSAA president Mandy Maysey emphasised the need for education and training to break down misconceptions and improve interactions between first responders and the TS community.
“The misconceptions and lack of education surrounding TS could be a contributing factor when it comes to negative interactions between first responders and the TS community,” Maysey mentioned.
To tackle this problem, TSAA is urging leaders in first responder professions to supply schooling and coaching to stop unfavourable interactions with the TS group.
The organisation hopes to roll out a coaching video with enter from leaders in first response to assist educate each first responders and the Australian public on figuring out the situation and the way finest to reply.
Victoria Police mentioned whereas it didn’t ship coaching particular to TS, it was “committed to treating all people with disability with fairness and consideration.”
“Foundation training for all police includes how to interact with people with disability, and/or people with a communication disability,” a press release to news.com.au mentioned.
“Police are also trained in communicating with people with a disability and are taught about good practice in this area more generally. Some police officers also receive further training in how to conduct recorded evidence interviews with children and people with cognitive impairment.”
Mr Sayers says the dialog doesn’t must be a tough one, with loads within the TS group already taking it upon themselves to coach the general public.
“If you see it as a positive, that can have a really positive outcome, like I’ve educated certain people and made connections,” he defined.
“The amount of times it’s been a positive interaction and not only that, I’ve taught someone something and had great chats – it’s not what you would initially think.”
He additionally mentioned the general public’s understanding of the situation has considerably improved.
“Now, it’s amazing that I can say, ‘I have Tourette’s’, and people know what it is,” he exclaimed.
“I’m a lot wiser – I can see past what might seem like someone being rude by staring.
“Whereas when you’re still young, and you’re not really accepting the condition, it’s gonna come as a negative, and obviously, it’s gonna make someone very, very uncomfortable.
“If someone said they could take my TS away, I’d say ‘get f***ed’ – I wouldn’t know who I’d be without it.”
Source: www.news.com.au
