SPPD, Citizens Patrol: Seminar on Alzheimer’s issues a lifesaver
June 04, 2010
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Dealing with Alzheimer’s is challenging for both caregivers and emergency response personnel, those who took part in a seminar Saturday learned from a nationally recognized expert.
The Santa Paula Police Department and Citizens Patrol-sponsored “What You Didn’t Know About Alzheimer’s” was held May 29 at the Santa Paula High School Auditorium, a three-hour workshop conducted by Kimberly Kelly Falconer.
The founder and executive director of Project Far From Home Foundation, Falconer has developed numerous educational programs - for emergency personnel and caregivers alike - on the problems of dealing with the disease and the risk for people experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia, especially when they wander off. Sergeant Jimmy Fogata thanked the crowd for attending, and noted those attending would receive a training certificate at the end of the seminar.
“The fact that you came out today when it’s a three-day weekend attests to your interest,” said Police Chief Steve MacKinnon. “Very early on in my own career we got a call of an elderly gentleman” who had wandered off, and although, MacKinnon said, the man was found only blocks from home, “I remember the anxiety on his wife’s face, the stress” from dealing with her husband’s disappearance and his deteriorating mental condition.
When the man was brought home, “Although married probably 60 years,” MacKinnon said, he denied knowing his wife. “Alzheimer’s was not a term then” for what the man was suffering, but “I can still see that lady’s face.” The issue has become one of community and the need for education, noted MacKinnon as he presented Falconer’s credentials.
Falconer said she has “found more people,” propelled to wander due to Alzheimer’s or dementia “when I’m not on an actual search.” There are about 5.5-million Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s, which was first diagnosed in about 1906 but was not widely recognized until the 1990s when it was announced that former President Reagan was suffering from the progressive disease.
By 2020 it is expected the number of cases will increase to 16.4 million, and Falconer said head injuries often trigger the onset of Alzheimer’s. “Seventy percent of those will wander at least once,” and some multiple times, such as the man Falconer said went missing 64 times. When Falconer asked the man’s wife why he was not fitted with a GPS tracking bracelet she replied, “You always find him!”
A mid-1990s study of 41 rescue missions found that if the wanderer is not found within 24 hours, 46 percent were discovered dead or with injuries resulting from being in accidents and not be able to deal with their environment to weather exposure and even assault. “That doesn’t include the individuals never found,” said Falconer, who gave case examples of missing persons with Alzheimer’s believed to be dead.
One in eight people 65 and older has Alzheimer’s, and about half of those 85 and older. Falconer said most live 8 to 12 years after they are diagnosed, although some do live longer.
Why do they wander? “Out of obligation, wander out of pain, wander from need... that’s why they don’t always look like they’re lost; they have a purpose” for wandering away from a safe environment. Often there is a “major trigger” that sets them on their journey, such as the loss of a caregiver.
In the past, search decision-making was often made applying flawed data - such as statistics and methods used in Washington State applied in California - but new studies have improved response. A study revealed that 44 percent of those who wandered in California traveled more than four miles.
Some, said Falconer, still drive. One woman took out her car, became confused and then walked around her vehicle repeatedly until she collapsed and died from exposure.
Caregivers, noted Falconer, can help prevent wandering: “Hang a curtain in front of the door, wallpaper the door to match the walls, install doorknobs that don’t look like doorknobs” are some easy tricks to prevent an Alzheimer’s patient from attempting to leave their residence.
Each year public safety and search and rescue units across the country deal with more than 125,000 cases of lost or missing Alzheimer subjects. “If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s,” event organizer Samantha Frady of SPPD Citizens Patrol urges, “it’s a good plan to take a current photo and their medical information to your local police department to have on record in case they do go missing.”
For more information on Falconer’s organization, visit the website, www.projectfarfromhome.org.
