Published: June 15, 2008 01:35 am            

Officials hope new program a real lifesaver for the elderly

PALESTINE — No one wants to have to break the news to someone that a loved one has been found dead.

Or that they haven’t been found at all, when missing.

Anderson County health officials who work with the elderly are excited about a new program coming on line this summer with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office — Project Lifesaver.

Project Lifesaver is an identification and tracking system used to keep track of people who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s and those who tend to wander. Last year, Anderson County commissioners approved spending $10,000 to begin the program.

According to Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor, wandering persons may purchase and wear a non-removeable bracelet which emits an electronic signal to a receiver kept at the sheriff’s office. Deputies will perform monthly equipment checks to make sure the bracelet and receiver are working properly.

Initially, the sheriff’s office will have two bracelets and receivers available for sale, but officials hope that funds can be raised to purchase more bracelets.

The bracelets cost $275 each through the Alzheimer’s Alliance in Tyler and will be for sale to interested families. Scholarships also will be available for those in need who cannot afford the full amount, Taylor said.

“It’s pretty frequently that we go out and search for Alzheimer’s patients,” he said. “During a period of time earlier in the year, we were out once or twice a week.

“This Lifesaver program addresses the need. It costs money but it saves lives.”

A large percentage of diagnosed Alzheimer’s patients wander, said Gerri Simpson of Crown Home Health Services.

“Seventy percent of all people with Alzheimer’s will wander,” Simpson said. “They’ll wander on their best days. They feel good and want to get out and they get confused.

“If the person is not found within the first 24 hours, they’re often not found,” she added.

Typically, when the sheriff’s office receives a call that an Alzheimer’s patient has wandered away from home, Taylor said, the search effort pulls every available deputy, as well as family and community members, into the field to begin looking. The effort can take hours or days, and as the temperatures rise, the outlook becomes grim.

“This could cut that significantly,” he said.

Training will be held at the sheriff’s office later this month, said Taylor.

“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “This will be a great benefit. Anytime an elderly person wanders off, the heat can take its toll.”

Some health care organizations estimate that as many as 5 million people are currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Simpson said, and some predict that the number may climb by 2050 to as many as 16 million.

In an effort locally to help raise awareness of Alzheimer’s and to raise funds for the bracelets, Simpson is helping organize the 2008 “Catch the Hope” Alzheimer’s Walk, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Oct. 9.

Participants can walk individually or as part of a team, with proceeds raised going to the Alzheimer’s Alliance of Northeast Texas, located in Tyler. Walkers, sponsors and volunteers are needed to make the event a success, she said.

“One of the great things about all this is that 25 percent of all the money raised will go into a scholarship fund for Project Lifesaver,” Simpson said. “Crown Home Health Services is over the fund.”

In order to ensure that the scholarship funds help those who really need them, applicants must demonstrate a need and a medical diagnosis, she said.

For more information on Project Lifesaver or the Alzheimer’s Alliance, call 800-789-0508 or visit the Alliance Web site at www.alzalliance.org.

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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com

        

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