Bradley Sheriff Registers Dementia Patients

CLEVELAND, TN (WDEF-TV) –The Bradley county sheriff’s department is trying to get one-step ahead in the search for any missing alzheimer’s patients.
When a person with dementia disappears from home or a care facility, it sometimes takes hours to locate them, and sometimes its too late.
Here’s a plan to speed-up that process.

There are 5.2 million Americans now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and one person is diagnosed with dementia every 67 seconds.
Treatment and diagnosis have progressed but one of the biggest problems is with patients who get lost or disoriented.
The Bradley county sheriff’s department is putting a program in place to deal with that.

SHERIFF ERIC WATSON, BRADLEY CO. SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT "If someone in your family has alzheimer’s problems…issues related to that….we will send out an officer to your house…photograph the subject, and get information…personal information.

That information will be held in a confidential book..and only used if the person goes missing.

SHERIFF ERIC WATSON "This idea came from …because since I’ve been sheriff so far,we’ve had a couple of subjects that strayed away from the house. It took us hours to find them. A lot of times we had no clue who we were looking for…we didn’t have a picture."

The sheriff’s department has 60 volunteers working as part of the unpaid Community Service Division. They are the ones who will set up and monitor the missing patient program.

LT.JOE GILBERT, COMMANDER, COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM "If we can make a senior visit call and confirm that this person is well…then a law enforcement officer is not going to be called to make a welfare check 48 hours later…because the grandson in California couldn’t get ahold of the grandfather back here."

That group was formed last September, and it will also make regular home checks with families dealing with a patient with dementia.

Sheriff Watson says his volunteers signed up 7 families so far this week.

The Bradley county alzheimer’s registration program is different from most that are set-up around the country.
It focuses on individuals, and returning them home safely as quickly as possible.