Missing Alzheimer's Patients : Caregivers Need to Take Precautions
I have a co-worker whose father wasn't so fortunate. Like Marianne Caldwell's mother, her father disappeared and was never found alive.
In a 1996 Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management, Richard L. Peck described the then three-year old Safe Return program of the Alzheimer's Association: "The program equips the patient with an ID bracelet or necklace, with an emergency 800 number on the back to use when the patient has been lost or found. Similarly marked wallet cards and clothing labels are also made available. Information about a patient's disappearance is flashed nationwide using the National Crime Information Computer, a network of 17,000 local law enforcement agencies."
The Alzheimer's Association site tells us that "... Safe Return Program is the only nationwide program of its kind. Since the program began in 1993, more than 88,000 individuals have registered in Safe Return nationwide. The program has helped locate and return more than 7,000 individuals to their families and caregivers." The Web site at: http://www.alz.org/ResourceCenter/Progra... described the program. A Fact Sheet and Application form (Adobe Acrobat format) is found at: http://www.alz.org/ResourceCenter/FactSh... And an additional sheet of tips for caregivers concerning wandering can be found at: http://www.alz.org/ResourceCenter/FactSh...
It's one of those things we don't like to think about, but Alzheimer's patients do wander, and many of them go missing. Being prepared for what could happen can avoid a lot of additional heartache that we really don't need on top of the diagnosis and all that is involved in being a family caregiver. Please don't let your loved one become one of the news links on this page: http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/m...
References
Alzheimer's Association Safe Return. http://www.alz.org/ResourceCenter/Progra...
Caldwell, Marianne Dickerman. Gone Without A Trace. Forest Knolls, California: Elder Books, 1995.
"Nurse Researcher Identifies Search Criteria for Wandering Patients" Pain & Central Nervous System Week November 5, 2001, p. 5-6.
Peck, Richard L. "Alzheimer's Association Safe Return", Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management, Feb.96, v. 45, issue 2, p. 7.
"Wondering about the Wanderers" Lancet, 5/21/94, Vol. 343 Issue 8908, p1237-1238.
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