Program helps find missing Petaluma elderly

When Petaluma biochemist and environmental leader Gerald Moore was found last May after being lost for more than 24 hours, Petaluma police were able to locate him using techniques they currently employ under a program established to make it easier to locate missing elderly loved ones.

Moore, 77, was found unharmed by police near Frates and Old Adobe Road after an extensive community search. The Safe Return program, started a year ago, organizes information to aid police and the community in locating those who suffer from varying forms of memory loss, whether due to injury, medications or dementia.

Jennifer Pritchard, community education outreach and volunteer coordinator for the Petaluma Police Department, said Safe Return is vital to creating an efficient process for finding a person who has gone missing and cannot help themselves.

“We just helped an 82-year-old woman who wandered off get back to her family this last week,” she said. “But this is not just a problem for our seniors. It can be a problem for anyone at any age.”

Pritchard has coordinated the Safe Return program for the police department since it’s inception in August 2015. She noted that people who have children with bipolar disorder or any problems that can affect memory and judgment are at risk for getting lost.

“Since January, the police have handled 188 calls for missing persons. In just the last two weeks we’ve had 12 calls. The Safe Return program has been a great help in locating these people and returning them to their loved ones unharmed,” Pritchard said.

The program provides a form which asks for detailed information regarding a person’s age, physical description, medical needs and languages spoken. The program also asks for a recent photograph so that police will be able to send out as much information as possible to the general public in order to find a missing person.

The form can be downloaded off the Petaluma Police website at cityofpetaluma.net/police/pdf/Safe_Return.pdf and must be physically returned to the police department. The police will take a photo free of charge if one is not provided. The police state that in order to be eligible for the program, all participants must be Petaluma residents who are “mentally impaired or developmentally disabled so as to have difficulty communicating.”

“When we get a call that someone is missing, we try to approach those individuals in a calm manner and engage them in discussion. Our overriding concern is the community’s wellbeing,” said Officer William Baseman. “An individual has the right to go where they please, and we try to make sure the person needs our help instead of just wanting to be alone.”

Susan Kay Gilbert helped to establish the Safe Return project in Petaluma after her mother wandered from home. Gilbert’s mother died last July, and she said her mother was since removed from the Safe Return database.

“But having her information contained in the database brought me a sense of assurance for the year of her life after she first wandered that she was in it, that if she did end up wandering again, this would have served as a safety net for her,” Gilbert said.

The Alzheimer’s Association operates programs such as Safe Return across the country. They estimate that six out of ten people with Alzheimer’s disease will wander. The Alzheimer’s disease offers identification bracelets and necklaces to people who might be at risk.

The organization notes that dementia causes millions of people in the United States to lose their ability to “recognize familiar places and faces or to even remember their names or addresses.”

“They may become disoriented and lost, even in their own neighborhood. They may wander by foot as well as by car or other form of transportation,” according to the organization’s website.

Dementia is described as an “irreversible thinking skills disorder” by Kaiser Santa Rosa physician Wynnelena Canio. A specialist in geriatric medicine and psychiatry for ten years, Canio said dementia disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease are a growing problem with an increasingly aging population.

“Dementia is not just memory loss but the loss of judgment and reason,” Canio said. “There are signs that can be detected of dementia, but that must be followed with multiple evaluations. It is important to prepare and plan for the future.”

Don Streeper of the Petaluma Senior Center said that he sees a “booming” population increase among the elderly, with little going into preparation to handle the needs of that population. Elece Hempel, executive director of Petaluma People Services Center, agreed, saying programs such as Safe Return are a “great prevention program.”

“A good prevention strategy makes sense, especially since many of our seniors are trying to age at home,” said Hempel.

Petaluma Police sergeant Marty Frye said many families do not see or accept the onset of dementia and other problems of aging, so a system in place to anticipate future problems makes sense and is part of community policing. The Alzheimer’s Association states that roughly 88 percent of people enrolled in a Safe Return-style program are found within 24 hours.

Pritchard said that the program is not being utilized as much as it could be by the public and that it is the community’s responsibility as much as the police department to take care of those who need help.

”The information is private and only gathered for emergencies,” said Pritchard.

She noted the program is bound under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which prohibits releasing private medical information to the general public.

“We can’t protect our people who might need help someday if they are lost, without the public’s participation in the program,” said Pritchard. “Too many times, people wait until it is too late.”