First Responder Training for Police and Correctional Medical Staff

On any given shift, law enforcement officers may encounter persons exhibiting confused behavior, an inability to communicate, or a variety of behaviors inappropriate to time and place. There may be many causes of such behavior – some illegal and some medical. In some cases these episodes will be the result of seizures. Seizures are episodes of altered brain awareness or movement caused by temporary, abnormal electrical discharges in the brain. Seizures may occur because a person has epilepsy, diabetes or as a consequence of drug use or some other medical problem.

Whatever the cause of the seizure, the event itself is a disabling condition and requires a police response that recognizes the involuntary nature of the episode, and the inability of the individual involved to make conscious decisions or respond to directions from a law enforcement officer.

Many of the problems that crop up when law enforcement responds to a seizure are due to the officer’s unfamiliarity with the real nature of these episodes. Police may interpret dazed behavior, inability to obey directives, and a combative response to restraint as conscious actions. Police are likely o react with force and may try to arrest the person having the seizure. Such response is humiliating to the person involved, and may cause injury and lawsuits. In a few instances, failure to recognize seizures in people who are in custody has had a fatal outcome. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, seizure-related arrests may constitute denial of rights and discrimination on the bases of disability.

Schedule a Training

The key to a more appropriate law enforcement response to the nearly three million Americans who have epilepsy is training: training in how to recognize seizures, training in the correct response to seizures in the community, and training in the unique needs of people with epilepsy who are taken into custody for any reason.

To schedule a training, please contact Epilepsy Foundation Northwest at mail@epilepsynw.org.