share: "Silver Alerts" help find lost people suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia
We see it on the news all too often: An older person with Alzheimer's Disease or dementia has wandered or driven away from their home. Family members are distraught, law enforcement is searching, perhaps flyers go up in the neighborhood. At the center of it all is a person who's lost and confused, and may or may not find their way back home.
Florida has started a program that is so simple, it's brilliant. And it's working.
When a person in the state who is over 60 and who suffers from dementia or Alzheimers goes missing, the state issues a "Silver Alert," similar to an Amber Alert -- a notification that goes out immediately to law enforcement officials and the general public to let them know who is missing, what they look like and where they were last seen. An extra part of the alert is that all phone numbers within a mile of where the person left home get an automated phone call telling them about the Silver Alert.
All 19 times that the state has issued Silver Alerts, the person has been found. About a dozen other states are adopting or have adopted similar programs, and legislation for a national program is pending in Congress.
Here's the full story in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/us/18silver.html?_r=1&ref=health
Do you have someone in your family who has dementia or Alzheimer's? Have they ever had the misfortune of being lost or missing? Do you think programs like the Silver Alert should be national, or state-based?
All user-generated information on this site is the opinion of its author only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Members and guests are responsible for their own posts and the potential consequences of those posts detailed in our Terms of Service.
Add a Comment1 Comments
Nationally based programs are a good idea for important issues like this, but they would be administered on a state-level obviously, since it's doubtful that federal enforcements would be called in. If done on a state level, I would assume all 50 states would jump on this. It's great that Florida and other states are moving on this, particularly when the results are so obviously positive.
As far as funding (federal versus state) goes, I hope States will want to undertake it right now, and with recent bailouts in the hundreds of billions of dollars, federal funding may be slow. As always, it's the average person who loses out, while the big corporations enjoy special needs status.
While working with dementia patients, we had several instances of them being found watering in town, or trying to take public transportation to the job they held decades before or their childhood home. No identification or money on them. Luckily authorities knew to always check with our building if they found a confused person wandering the streets. I have read several heart-breaking stories of dementia patients dying from exposure (mostly due to the cold, sometimes due to the heat). These programs are very important.
December 22, 2008 - 1:00pmThis Comment