ATLANTA, GA — Law enforcement could get new training on how to deal with missing Alzheimer’s patients if state lawmakers pass a new bill this session.
John Clark of Georgia Emergency Search and Rescue tells WSB Radio in cases where a person with Alzheimer’s has gone missing, the questions first responders ask are critical because this kind of call for assistance needs to be treated with special care.
Once you engage them, it’s best to ask “them ‘old’ questions, like, ‘Where do you go to school?’ ‘Where’s you from?’ ‘Ya have a nickname?’ Things like that. You have to go back.” Clark says for those living with the disease, they are not thinking about today. They are thinking in their mind as if it is 10, 12, 15 years ago.
Caregivers, family members, and friends need to call for help quickly because they are the ones who can tell law enforcement where to look for their loved one.
Clark says what police get wrong is that they ask a few basic questions, ask for a picture, and then head for the woods. “You don’t do that! You don’t look in the woods! They are never in the woods. If the evidence leads to the woods, then you look there.”
Additionally, the training would include how to identify signs of abuse and how to communicate effectively with someone who has dementia.