SAFELY HOME™SAFELY HOME™Alzheimer Wandering RegistryAlzheimer Wandering Registry

Randy Antonio - Detective Constable,

Missing Persons Unit

Winnipeg Police Service

Janice Hebb - Client Services Coordinator,

Alzheimer Society of Manitoba

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Defining Wandering Behaviour... “movement by a person with dementia, whether

aimless or purposeful, on foot or by other means, which occurs when certain cognitive losses and environmental circumstances intersect, causing that person to become lost in an unsupervised and potentially unsafe setting”

Silverstein, Flaherty and Tobin (2002)

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Symptoms: Getting Lost

Memory loss

Disorientation to time and place

Decreased judgment

Lack of sense of lapsed time

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Why Might People with Dementia Wander?

Changed Environment Excess Energy Searching for the Past Expressing Boredom Continuing a Habit

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Safely Home - Alzheimer Wandering Registry Established 1995

Registration voluntary – one-time fee of $35.00. The Safely Home program is free of charge to individuals who are veterans

Information is stored on CPIC database

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Register Early

Register people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias with Safely Home before they become lost.

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The Benefits of Safely Home…. Designed to help find a person who is lost and

assist in a safe return home

Registrants are given a unique ID bracelet and cards with a number linked to CPIC

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Safely Home: Bracelet

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Safely Home: Bracelet

Front: Urgent See Other Side

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Safely Home: BraceletBack: Identification Number (linked to CPIC) Person’s First Name Memory Loss Call Police

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The Benefits of Safely Home…. Designed to help find a person who is lost and

assist in a safe return home

Registrants are given a unique ID bracelet and cards with a number linked to CPIC

Family is given information to help them should the person get lost

Safely Home is linked to the American Safe Return program

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Safely Home...How Can It Help?

When a registrant goes missing… the caregiver calls the local police. the police will access CPIC to find pertinent

information including: personal history, physical characteristics and

locations where the person is known to visit.

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Safely Home...How Can It Help?

When a registrant is found… the identification number from the person’s

ID bracelet is used to search CPIC This tells where the person lives and who to

contact.

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How to Register Someone with Safely Home Contact your local Alzheimer Society You may also download a registration

form from our website: www.alzheimer.mb.ca or www.alzheimer.ca

You may also call our toll free number

1-800-378-6699

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For More Information

Contact: Janice Hebb Client Services Coordinator Alzheimer Society of Manitoba 10 - 120 Donald Street Winnipeg, MB R3C 4G2 (204) 943-6622 Ext. 203 1-800-378-6699

Or the Regional office nearest you

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Video

Safely Home Program

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Search and Rescue

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Accessing Data

To query Safely Home (known as Wandering Persons Registry on CPIC) complete the mandatory Query Person keywords and enter:

WANDER: Yes (Y) (will search the entire CPIC database including Safely Home) or ONLY (searches only the Safely Home database on CPIC)

MA: for those registered prior to 1997 with the person’s MedicAlert™ identifier or after 1997 with the Safely Home bracelet number

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CPIC Screen

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Data in the Record

A query may result in obtaining any or all of the following information on the person (the comprehensiveness of the data depends upon how complete a record was supplied to the Alzheimer Society).It may include: personal history, physical characteristics and

locations where the person is known to visit. Name, description,contact information.

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Unique Traits

People with Alzheimer’s Disease: have a 50% chance of being injured or dying from

exposure, hypothermia or drowning if they are not found within the first 12 hours - SEARCH IS AN EMERGENCY! 

are often not aware that they are lost. 

often walk in a straight line until they become stuck - they will not walk out of a wooded area - they will stay stuck. It is therefore helpful to know which door the person exited.

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Unique Traits Their path may not be a logical one. Searchers

should resist the temptation to plot a search based on logical deduction. Even if the person with Alzheimer’s disease is going somewhere specific like a former residence, they will often not follow a logical path.

The most common places where a person with Alzheimer’s disease is found are in creeks, drainage areas, or caught in briars or bushes. 90% of these individuals will be found within a mere one mile of the place they left.

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Unique Traits

People not involved in the official search often find them, such as neighbours or people driving by. Therefore having a strategy for notifying the community is important.

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Preparing

What can be done in your community?

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SEARCH is an Emergency

A resource to help organizations who care for people with Alzheimer’s disease to develop a search plan

The activities encourage involving the police and community in preparing for a search

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Video

Search and Rescue