Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Trish Ieraci:Understanding Autism Saves Lives: One Trainer's Mission to Transform Police Interactions
14 Apr 2025
Send us a text Trish Ieraci, founder of Teaching Individuals About Autism (TIA), takes us deep into the critical gap between law enforcement training and successful interactions with the autism community. With powerful clarity, she dismantles the narrow stereotype that autism only affects severely impaired children, explaining how this misconception creates dangerous situations when officers encounter well-spoken, educated autistic adults. "You meet one person with autism, you meet one person with autism," Ieraci emphasizes, highlighting the spectrum's vast diversity—from those requiring constant care to professionals with advanced degrees. Her innovative three-pronged approach creates meaningful bridges: facilitating meetings between parents and police leadership, bringing autistic individuals to police departments for controlled exposure to uniforms and equipment, and providing comprehensive training far beyond the insufficient "10-minute roll call" some departments rely on. Ieraci offers crucial distinctions that transform police interactions, including the difference between tantrums (seeking something) and meltdowns (wanting something to stop), and correcting the misconception that autism is a mental health disorder rather than a neurological difference. Her practical recommendations for crisis management—from environmental modifications to communication adaptations—provide officers with immediately applicable tools for de-escalation. The conversation reveals troubling inconsistencies in training across jurisdictions, with federal law enforcement often receiving less preparation than local departments. Ieraci's pioneering work with sensory bags for police vehicles and advocacy for identification systems like QR codes on personal items demonstrates how thoughtful accommodation can prevent unnecessary escalation. Ready to transform understanding in your community? Share this episode with local law enforcement agencies and autism advocacy groups. The bridge Trish is building saves lives by replacing confusion with compassion, fear with understanding, and potential conflict with productive communication. https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Full Episode
Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real-life people who will inspire... and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully, you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, The Silent Crisis special event. Joining us today is Trish Irasi. She founded a company named TIA, which stands for Teaching Individuals About Autism.
She possesses invaluable insights, and we are truly honored to have her on the show. Thanks for coming on.
Well, thank you for having me.
So if you would, tell me a little bit about what you do.
I am an autism awareness trainer. I specifically work with law enforcement and I give them the tools to recognize when somebody is under the spectrum. I give them suggestions on how to deescalate a situation, how to handle a situation, and
One of the big things that I'm finding out, Tony, is that when I'm speaking about individuals under the spectrum, it seems like a lot of people and I'm not just talking law enforcement go to those that are a severe B that are children. So I also educate them that you can have, yes, those individuals that are severe, they need the 24-7 care, 365.
And then you go and you have those individuals that are getting their PhDs, they are becoming attorneys, they are becoming accountants, CPAs, whatever, and everything in between. So just because somebody presents as being well-educated, well-spoken, does not automatically exclude them from being under the spectrum. And this has happened to individuals that I have met.
They're not believed just because they are, again, like I said, well-spoken, educated, so on. You know, that somebody like that can't be under the spectrum. Well, that's why it has the term the spectrum term. And again, making them aware of that.
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