"911...What is your emergency?"

"My mother is gone! She has Alzheimer’s disease and wandered away," the voice is frantic. "Please, send someone quickly!"

Every day across the United States, this scenario is played, and re-played, by law enforcement officers, and search and rescue teams, who respond to missing Alzheimer’s persons. Yet, while this type of call has become more and more commonplace, many persons underestimate the severity of danger that a wandering Alzheimer’s person faces.

Alzheimer's patients often come to the attention of law enforcement officials because of wandering. As the afflicted AD sufferer loses more and more of his memory, he will often go in search of a particular item, person, or place. These persons are not easily distracted child-like persons who have simply gotten lost; the brain changes and visual impairments that occur in Alzheimer's patients cause an irrepressible urge to wander.

Wandering has proven such a common behavior that Alzheimer's experts predict that 70% of all AD sufferers will wander away from safety at least once during the course of their illness. Anecdotal evidence suggests many will wander an average of 6 to 8 times before the victim is placed into a residential facility or an outside, qualified caretaker/nurse is brought into the home to help.

Wandering AD subjects rarely find their own way home. While sometimes a wanderer is able to recognize, and verbalize, that he requires assistance, most are unable, or unwilling, to do so. A 1995 review of 46 search mission records from Virginia by Robert Koester and David Stooksbury shows that in no case did an Alzheimer's subject ever call out for help, nor answer to calls shouted by field personnel [Koester and Stooksbury, 1995].

Because of the impairment to judgement and logical thinking, many AD persons are unable to recognize danger to themselves. They may wander across roads or highways, fall into bodies of water, or become entrapped in heavy brush.

Studies by Robert Koester and David Stooksbury [1992,1995] show that wandering Alzheimer's subjects lost in Virginia face a 46% mortality rate, if not found within 24 hours. Information provided by the Emergency Services Council of British Nova Scotia report death incidents of 70%. Records by the Twin Peaks/Rim of the World Search and Rescue team showed 100% mortality rates for any subject over the age of 60 who are not found within 24 hours [Alzheimer's diagnosis or status not noted, 1/1968-08/30/1994].

In order to understand how your missing subject may behave or react to his environment, you must understand Alzheimer's disease. Without understanding the impairments in thinking, logic, emotion, vision, and other critical areas of the brain, officers may be less likely to attach a significance of risk to these persons.

Our goal is to educate law enforcement officers and other public safety personnel so we can further increase the opportunities to find and return these missing persons to their loved ones.