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SAFELY HOME™ Alzheimer Wandering Registry. Randy Antonio - Detective Constable, Missing Persons Unit Winnipeg Police Service Janice Hebb - Client Services Coordinator, Alzheimer Society of Manitoba.
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SAFELY HOME™Alzheimer Wandering Registry Randy Antonio - Detective Constable, Missing Persons Unit Winnipeg Police Service Janice Hebb - Client Services Coordinator, Alzheimer Society of Manitoba
Defining Wandering Behaviour... • “movement by a person with dementia, whether aimless or purposeful, on foot or by other means, which occurs when certain cognitive losses and environmental circumstances intersect, causing that person to become lost in an unsupervised and potentially unsafe setting” Silverstein, Flaherty and Tobin (2002)
Symptoms: Getting Lost • Memory loss • Disorientation to time and place • Decreased judgment • Lack of sense of lapsed time
Why Might People with Dementia Wander? • Changed Environment • Excess Energy • Searching for the Past • Expressing Boredom • Continuing a Habit
Safely Home - Alzheimer Wandering Registry • Established 1995 • Registration voluntary – one-time fee of $35.00. The Safely Home program is free of charge to individuals who are veterans • Information is stored on CPIC database
Register Early Register people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias with Safely Home before they become lost.
The Benefits of Safely Home…. • Designed to help find a person who is lost and assist in a safe return home • Registrants are given a unique ID bracelet and cards with a number linked to CPIC
Safely Home: Bracelet Front: • Urgent See Other Side
Safely Home: Bracelet Back: • Identification Number (linked to CPIC) • Person’s First Name • Memory Loss • Call Police
The Benefits of Safely Home…. • Designed to help find a person who is lost and assist in a safe return home • Registrants are given a unique ID bracelet and cards with a number linked to CPIC • Family is given information to help them should the person get lost • Safely Home is linked to the American Safe Return program
Safely Home...How Can It Help? When a registrant goes missing… • the caregiver calls the local police. • the police will access CPIC to find pertinent information including: • personal history, physical characteristics and locations where the person is known to visit.
Safely Home...How Can It Help? When a registrant is found… • the identification number from the person’s ID bracelet is used to search CPIC • This tells where the person lives and who to contact.
How to Register Someone with Safely Home • Contact your local Alzheimer Society • You may also download a registration form from our website: www.alzheimer.mb.ca or www.alzheimer.ca • You may also call our toll free number 1-800-378-6699
For More Information Contact: Janice Hebb Client Services Coordinator Alzheimer Society of Manitoba 10 - 120 Donald Street Winnipeg, MB R3C 4G2 (204) 943-6622 Ext. 203 1-800-378-6699 Or the Regional office nearest you
Video Safely Home Program
Accessing Data • To query Safely Home (known as Wandering Persons Registry on CPIC) complete the mandatory Query Person keywords and enter: • WANDER: Yes (Y) (will search the entire CPIC database including Safely Home) or ONLY (searches only the Safely Home database on CPIC) • MA: for those registered prior to 1997 with the person’s MedicAlert™ identifier or after 1997 with the Safely Home bracelet number
Data in the Record • A query may result in obtaining any or all of the following information on the person (the comprehensiveness of the data depends upon how complete a record was supplied to the Alzheimer Society).It may include: • personal history, physical characteristics and locations where the person is known to visit. • Name, description,contact information.
Unique Traits People with Alzheimer’s Disease: • have a 50% chance of being injured or dying from exposure, hypothermia or drowning if they are not found within the first 12 hours - SEARCH IS AN EMERGENCY! • are often not aware that they are lost. • often walk in a straight line until they become stuck - they will not walk out of a wooded area - they will stay stuck. It is therefore helpful to know which door the person exited.
Unique Traits • Their path may not be a logical one. Searchers should resist the temptation to plot a search based on logical deduction. Even if the person with Alzheimer’s disease is going somewhere specific like a former residence, they will often not follow a logical path. • The most common places where a person with Alzheimer’s disease is found are in creeks, drainage areas, or caught in briars or bushes. 90% of these individuals will be found within a mere one mile of the place they left.
Unique Traits • People not involved in the official search often find them, such as neighbours or people driving by. Therefore having a strategy for notifying the community is important.
Preparing What can be done in your community?
SEARCH is an Emergency • A resource to help organizations who care for people with Alzheimer’s disease to develop a search plan • The activities encourage involving the police and community in preparing for a search
Video Search and Rescue