 Emergency workers nationwide are seeking specialized training for an increasing number of search calls for seniors with dementia who wander … As the number of Alzheimer’s cases continues to grow nationwide, more adult children and other family members will continue turning to senior living communities that offer dementia care to ensure a safe and engaging living environment for their aging parents. A New York Times article reports that “rising numbers of searches are driving the need to retrain emergency workers, police officers, and volunteers around the country who say they throw out just about every generally accepted idea when hunting for people who are, in many ways, lost from the inside out.” In Virginia, for example, Robert B. Schaefer, a retired FBI agent whose wife lived with Alzheimer’s for 15 years, now leads training sessions for the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services. He says searching for wandering seniors with dementia is best fueled by some knowledge of the senior’s life, “including what sort of work they did, where they went to school, and whether they fought in war.” According to the Times, “some World War II veterans, for example, have gone huge distances believing they needed to report to base or the front lines. A man in Virginia was lost for days until searchers, in interviews with family, learned he had long ago been a dairy farmer … it turned out he had headed for a cow pasture not far from his home, believing it was time for the morning milking.” The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) has played a lead role in advocating for Silver Alert legislation. Read the Silver Alert legislation, H.R. 632. Feedback
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 05/10/2010
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