Alzheimer’s patients are getting technological help to locate them if they wander off, part of a program being launched in the state.
Project Lifesaver, a national program recently funded by the Colorado legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, will bring in substantial funding to buy radio-signal transmitter bracelets to be worn by Alzheimer’s patients. The program also will pay for receivers to be placed in law-enforcement vehicles to assist in locating patients who have wandered away.
The Arapahoe and Douglas county sheriff’s offices have already started Project Lifesaver programs, and other counties are expected to follow.
The program’s success is striking. Of the 1,065 Lifesaver searches in 37 states in 2005, every bracelet wearer was found, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
There were no deaths and no serious injuries of the bracelet wearers. Nearly all the wanderers were adults suffering from some form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. A small number were autistic children who wandered away.
Alzheimer’s disease can cause incredible anxiety and pain not only for the sufferers but for their loved ones and caregivers.
“It’s terrifying for both the patient and the relatives,” said Sara Spalding, spokeswoman for the Colorado chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and whose husband is a patient. “Your anxiety goes through the roof when someone you love wanders away.”
Deanna Lorenz, 38, just spent the past month searching the mountains east of Salida for her father, a very fit, 63-year-old retired Air Force colonel and Alzheimer’s patient who left on a walk with his two dogs on Sept. 24.
A massive search involving family, friends, law enforcement and helicopters failed to find him, while the anguished family worried and grieved. Finally, a hunter found his body on Oct. 23, 15 miles from his home, with his two emaciated dogs still standing guard over him.
“At last we have some closure,” Deanna Lorenz said while crying. “We don’t have to worry anymore if he’s wandering lost in some city. It’s a peaceful release from what we’ve been going through.”
November is national Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, which will be marked locally with the Denver City and County Building’s spire bathed in purple light every night.
Colorado has 64,000 Alzheimer’s patients, 30,000 of whom are in the metro-Denver and Boulder areas, according to Spalding. About 70 percent of them live at home, she said. Nationally, about 500,000 people younger than 65 suffer from Alzheimer’s, in what’s known as “early onset” of the disease. One in eight persons ages 65 to 85 will be diagnosed, and half the population 85 and older will be diagnosed, she said.
Alzheimer’s is fatal, with no known cure. The brain loses its ability to function, with loss of memory just one symptom. Eventually, patients forget to eat or drink or breathe.
The Alzheimer’s Association is handling distribution of the Project Lifesaver bracelets locally. Anyone with questions or concerns is encouraged to call the Colorado chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association at 800-272-3900. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
