MIDDLEBURG, Fla — One day after a 4-year-old boy went missing and was found dead in a river in Putnam County, groups on the First Coast are making sure families have the supplies they need to keep their children safe.
Officers say Mason Newstead was non-verbal and had autism. He wandered out a back door of his home. First Coast News is on your side with free resources you can find and how counties across the area are springing to action to make sure this does not happen to another child.
“In each one, there is a door alarm,” said Kaitlin Sparks, a behavioral analyst with Great Strides Pediatric Rehabilitation, showing First Coast News a drowning prevention kit.
These kits will be available to any family for free starting in April, Autism Awareness Month. See the addresses at the bottom of this article for where you can pick one up. Employees at Great Strides have put together 300 of the kits, which include a door alarm, lanyards to designate an adult to watch children and safety tips.
According to the Autism Society of Florida, drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism under age 15.
“It is a huge area of need from a safety standpoint,” Sparks said. “To be able to help families be able to feel comfortable in their own homes without the fear that their child will wander off and unfortunately pass away as a result of that because they aren't able to communicate that they are leaving the house.”
Sparks says camera systems set up in your home or tracking devices that monitor when your child leaves a perimeter or gets wet can be life savers. Sparks says certain health insurances and a Medicaid program can help connect families with a caregiver.
Glynn-Brunswick 911 just launched a new voluntary database called Logan's List to register people with special needs such as those who are non-verbal. The goal is to make sure first responders know how to communicate with the people registered in the database.
Director Cara Richardson gives an example of an interaction with a person in another state who had PTSD that shows why she says the new database can be important.
“He was afraid of anybody in any kind of uniform,” Richardson said. “Based on that knowledge, had we had that knowledge before, there probably would have been less of a confrontation that occurred.”
Sparks urges families to take every precaution like installing a door alarm.
“We are able to help provide just a little bit of added safety for these families that really have a lot of worry and stress in their life,” she said.
They’re key steps to take, she says, to keep every child safe. Learn more about autism from the CDC here.
You can pick up a drowning prevention kit in April from any of these Great Strides locations:
Jacksonville, Southpoint, 6871 Belfort Oaks Pl, Suite 200
Jacksonville, Mandarin, 12276 San Jose Blvd, Suite 508
Middleburg, 430 College Dr., Suite 107
St. Augustine, 1764 Tree Blvd, Unit 2