Regional Registry Can Help Dementia Patients Get Home
An ongoing search to find a woman with Alzheimer’s who walked away from the Pinezanita campgrounds over the weekend puts the issue of wandering dementia patients in the forefront. If you have a family member or friend who suffers from dementia and is likely to wander, you can register them in a free San Diego County Sheriff’s Department program called “Take Me Home.”
The program hosts a photo-based registry for dementia patients and children with special needs which can be accessed only by regional law enforcement in the event that the person has gone missing, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Melissa Aquino. The free service is for all San Diego County residents and not only includes photos but also crucial medical information and special information if the person is non-verbal, doesn’t like to be touched or only responds to a certain name.
“An Alzheimer’s or dementia search, whether it’s rural or urban, has the biggest sense of urgency,” said Sgt. Don Parker of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue unit.
Time and information are critical in a missing person call, particularly if the person has any form of dementia or other medical issue. To register a loved one or a patient in your care, visit http://www.sdsheriff.net/co_tmh.html.
During a search, the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team is more than happy to get helpful information from the public. Alert citizens have helped searchers in several cases where a lost person is on a property that is not easily seen or is outside of a search area.
Someone with dementia is more likely to walk and walk until they can’t walk anymore and then they will crawl until they can no longer move. That’s usually the end for them, because of dehydration and conditions that are either too cold or too hot, said Parker.
A person’s state of mind determines how the search is handled, Parker said. People who do not have dementia are less likely to put themselves in a more hazardous situation besides being lost. Reasonably, a lost hiker would know to seek, shelter, food and water and stay put.
“An Alzheimer’s patient doesn’t know what to do, all they know is to walk and that’s the tragedy of that disease because they just don’t realize that they’re in trouble,” Parker said.
The Sheriff’s ASTREA (Aerial Support to Regional Enforcement Agencies) unit often works along with Search and Rescue volunteer teams to help find missing people.
“It’s so much about information gathering and narrowing your scope right from the beginning,” said Pilot Tim Johnson. “You’re just trying to determine your best course of action.”
Johnson said pilots hope to arrive on scene quickly and broadcast the person’s description in the area where they were last seen. Often that generates some sightings or clues that could guide their search.
The aerial vantage point is helpful during the day if someone is wearing bright clothing or if the person is located in a remote area like the Cedar Creek and Three Sisters Falls areas. At night, the helicopter’s heat-source finding technology can be a life-saver.
Johnson recalls a case a few years ago when they were assisting San Diego Police Department with a search in the Torrey Pines area at night.
“We spotted him in low brush, totally out of view from any deputy, lying along a trail. There’s no way a patrol deputy would have spotted him from the ground,” Johnson said.
Someone who has dementia or Alzheimer’s will generally stay in a flat area, usually within a mile and a half from their last known point, Parker said. But he’s been on numerous searches where that’s not been the case too. One man walked 8 miles away, another woman was 12 miles away, completely out of the search area – and both were alive, he said. Walking long distances isn’t always the only risk. Parker said they have found people dead less than a quarter mile from where they were last seen.
Searches are systematic and involve combing an area thoroughly in a grid, sometimes more than once. Yet, searchers often apply a little bit of intuition, a little bit of best guesses, and a lot of common sense, Parker said. In addition to a person’s frame of mind, searchers also consider weather, terrain, witness statements and look at the history of the patient’s former jobs and hobbies.
Johnson said missing hikers, elderly and dementia cases and lost juveniles are regular calls for his unit. They usually get about 2-3 a week of each, he estimated.
“We have a lot more people who have Alzheimer’s and dementia,” said Parker. “The good thing is deputies are becoming more educated about the issues with dementia,” Parker said, and that means they can help find them sooner, sometimes without having to call in Search and Rescue.