Silver Alert: Alert Program For Missing Elderly
Program Aimed at Finding Missing Adults Kicks Off
RALEIGH North Carolina— A program aimed at helping track down missing adults with dementia or other cognitive impairment began Wednesday.
The Silver Alert works like an Amber Alert, but it's for adults who wander away from their home or a nursing facility.
"Family members or caregivers become concerned because their loved one may have run an errand and become confused or gone for a walk in the neighborhood and become lost," said Bryan Beatty, secretary of the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
Law enforcement typically has waited 24 hours before spreading the word about a missing adult. The Silver Alert gets the word out immediately.
The alert also allows caregivers and nursing homes to report a person missing. In the past, only a family member could do that.
Authorities said the alerts aren't just for elderly people. Anyone over 18 years old with a cognitive impairment would qualify for an alert if local law enforcement contact the state Center for Missing Persons.
"When a person starts walking and sometimes they have dementia, they'll get something in their mind. Maybe they're going back to their home or going back to a play area, and they don't have any idea how fast they were walking," Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said.
As many as 30 Silver Alerts are expected statewide each month, authorities said. Electronic billboards along highways might be activated if the missing people are believed to be driving.
Advocates for those with memory problems said the new system will save lives. Raleigh authorities, for example, searched three days last summer for 76-year-old Mildred Rogers who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, before finding her body in Crabtree Creek off Capital Boulevard.
"This is the best calling that we can use our legislative abilities to get these types of laws on the books," said state Rep. Marylyn Avila, R-Wake.
• Reporter: Erin Coleman
• Web Editors: Kamal Wallace, Matthew Burns
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