Education & Safety for Children with Autism to Prevent Elopement (ESCAPE)

Children with autism are at increased risk for elopement, which is a potentially dangerous behavior such as dashing or wandering away from safe settings. This study will provide elopement prevention kits for eligible children with autism spectrum disorder at no-cost to families. Caregivers will be asked to rate how useful individual kit items are at reducing elopement, and to provide feedback about how ESCAPE kits affect their stress levels and ability to engage meaningfully in community settings. This information will be used to guide development of a larger elopement prevention program and families will be compensated for completing these ratings.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the ESCAPE study for young children! We are now looking for families who have a teen (12 to 17 years old) diagnosed with autism who exhibits elopement behavior to participate in our study.

To find out if you are eligible, complete the ESCAPE Kit Study Screen form.

Questions? Contact the research team at 843-714-1352 or autismresearchdbped@musc.edu