I would call the police emergency number. An officer should be able to tell you how they can handle this. I live in a town of 13k. We had a friend who suffered from ALZ who walked all the time. We tried to give him a ride one time and he said no he was OK. Then said the cops are always stopping him. Probably because he was on their radar. They stopped to make sure everything was OK. I would be surprised if your township didn't have something in place. We also have a County Emergency Dept that you can have a person with a disability put on a list. My DH is on the list because he is deaf and won't hear someone knocking on the door or be able to understand instructions.
Code Silver or Silver Alert which is a state system to locate missing vulnerable adults. It works similarly to the Amber alert.
please call 911 and report. If your state has this Silver Alert program, the notice for your missing loved one will be sent to all the cell phones in the area and police will be looking for him too.
Both times my Dh did not return home, the sheriff's dept. (both in SoCal and in Northern California) took immediate action to search for him, even though he is not on a registry anywhere. They did not delay or state I would need to wait a certain time, because he is a vulnerable adult. They ask enough questions to determine this.
Both times, he was located within several hours. Kudos to law enforcement for keeping current on the needs of the communities they serve.
Just call 911, or their business phone. "Missing vulnerable adult". Keep a current photo, and a copy of his ID.
There are police and sheriff's departments who keep a "Special Needs Registry", listing the person's vulnerabilities, medications, and unusual behaviors that may put him 'at risk' when confronted by law enforcement.
Call the non-emergency number for your local police station and ask. Also, there are tracking devices that you can use. I considered using one for my father but he quickly became unable to roam so I didn't pursue it. I looked at tracking devices online. One bit of advice is to insert the tracking device into his shoes; people will often wander from home and leave behind their watch, phone or wallet, but they almost always put their shoes on before leaving the house. Do a Google search to get started.
If your son is living alone and has dementia AND wanders he should not be living alone. If he is living with you and he wanders then notifying the police is a good idea. In the area I live there was (do not know if they still have it) a program through the Mental Health Department of the County where they would identify people that might wander off. Children with Autism, adults with dementia...and a photo was taken, description and my Husband was fitted with a tracking device that looked like a wrist watch. If he went missing I would call 911 as usual and I would identify him as being in the Care Track program and they would set up an officer by the house and others would search the area with an antenna that was set to the frequency of the device. There are devices that you can get that will do the same and you can track it on your phone. Some Cell phones you can locate one with another, but he would have to have the phone with him in order for it to be of use.
If this is a constant problem that you deal with often enough that you are having to notify the police about the wandering it might be time to realize that he is not safe and he should be in Memory Care that will provide a safe, locked are for him.
- how old is your son? - does he live by himself of with someone else? - is anyone his PoA or legal guardian? - have you alerted APS about his chronic wandering? - what state are you in?
Most important question: how many times does he need to be endangered before someone who cares about him tries to come up with a more permanent solution?
Please tell us more so we have context about your situation.
Hello Geaton777 - Thank you for your concern and questions. My son is 70 yrs. old and he lives with me, his mother aged 96. I am his sole care-giver at present, although my family members and I are seeking help for my son re: dementia/memory care. We live in Michigan.
More to the point is "What do you expect the police to DO about your son's wandering off". They really aren't designed to give this care. Your son is in danger from any number of quarters if he typically does this and cannot find his way back, most of all from traffic injury. Every year those who suffer dementia are lost and never found. So that addresses the fact that you have a serious problem that the police do not factor into the cure of. Something you need to address. That said, my brother's ex suffered from alcoholic encepholopathy. He wandered not so much because he could not find his way back to his ALF but because he was seeking spirits (even mouthwash in a pinch). He could otherwise be in the lower levels of ALF and free to come and go, so what was done was a foot ankle bracelet similar to what a felon on home detention would wear. It was a program that was in fact run by the police in his So. Cal town. You might check that out WITH the police, who are of course your touchstone for this entire question. Wishing you the best of luck.
Or is this a frequent & ongoing problem?
Will being found quickly be enough? Or would removing the behaviour be safer?
(My LO has a frequent & ongoing fall problem. It has not been possible to remove this problem, so we work towards minimising harm instead).
please call 911 and report. If your state has this Silver Alert program, the notice for your missing loved one will be sent to all the cell phones in the area and police will be looking for him too.
They did not delay or state I would need to wait a certain time, because he is a vulnerable adult. They ask enough questions to determine this.
Both times, he was located within several hours. Kudos to law enforcement for keeping current on the needs of the communities they serve.
Just call 911, or their business phone. "Missing vulnerable adult".
Keep a current photo, and a copy of his ID.
There are police and sheriff's departments who keep a "Special Needs Registry", listing the person's vulnerabilities, medications, and unusual behaviors that may put him 'at risk' when confronted by law enforcement.
If he is living with you and he wanders then notifying the police is a good idea.
In the area I live there was (do not know if they still have it) a program through the Mental Health Department of the County where they would identify people that might wander off. Children with Autism, adults with dementia...and a photo was taken, description and my Husband was fitted with a tracking device that looked like a wrist watch. If he went missing I would call 911 as usual and I would identify him as being in the Care Track program and they would set up an officer by the house and others would search the area with an antenna that was set to the frequency of the device.
There are devices that you can get that will do the same and you can track it on your phone. Some Cell phones you can locate one with another, but he would have to have the phone with him in order for it to be of use.
If this is a constant problem that you deal with often enough that you are having to notify the police about the wandering it might be time to realize that he is not safe and he should be in Memory Care that will provide a safe, locked are for him.
- how old is your son?
- does he live by himself of with someone else?
- is anyone his PoA or legal guardian?
- have you alerted APS about his chronic wandering?
- what state are you in?
Most important question: how many times does he need to be endangered before someone who cares about him tries to come up with a more permanent solution?
Please tell us more so we have context about your situation.
My son is 70 yrs. old and he lives with me, his mother aged 96. I am his sole care-giver at present, although my family members and I are seeking help for my son re: dementia/memory care.
We live in Michigan.
So that addresses the fact that you have a serious problem that the police do not factor into the cure of. Something you need to address.
That said, my brother's ex suffered from alcoholic encepholopathy. He wandered not so much because he could not find his way back to his ALF but because he was seeking spirits (even mouthwash in a pinch). He could otherwise be in the lower levels of ALF and free to come and go, so what was done was a foot ankle bracelet similar to what a felon on home detention would wear. It was a program that was in fact run by the police in his So. Cal town. You might check that out WITH the police, who are of course your touchstone for this entire question.
Wishing you the best of luck.