According to Mr. Koester, the unique search and rescue related problems brought about by individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and other related disorders has been receiving increased attention recently. This is especially due to the fact that there is presently an increased awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease along with the fact that the U.S. population is generally aging. The generally accepted ratio is reported as being one "Critical Wanderer" (a Critical Wanderer is anyone with dementia who has disappeared on their own) per 1,000 persons over the age of 65. This means that there are presently approximately 31,000 cases a year.
Mr. Koester seemed to indicate that there wasn’t a large enough data pool to make any hard and fast conclusions, but his preliminary findings indicate that Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type patients generally:
- Leave their own residence or nursing home and start traveling along roads.
- Are usually located (89% of all cases) within one mile (1.2 km) of the Point Last Seen.
- Are usually on the road itself (14%), or a short distance from it (Median 33 yards).
- If not on the road itself, will usually be in a creek/drainage (28%) and/or caught in briars or bushes (33%).
- Succumb to the environment (hypothermia, dehydration) and require evacuation (35%) or are deceased (19%).
- Not cry out for help or respond to shouts.
- Will not leave many physical clues.
- May attempt to travel to a former residence or to a favorite location.
- Have a previous history of wandering.
- Have coexisting medical problems that limit mobility.
Suggested search techniques include:
- An immediate and aggressive response to a critical wanderer. A critical window of 24 hours becomes apparent for survival.
- Early use of trackers at point last seen.
- Early use of tracking dogs at PLS and along roadways.
- Early deployment of air scent dog teams into drainages and streams. Start near PLS.
- Thoroughly search the residence/nursing home and surrounding grounds and buildings. Repeat every few hours.
- Cut for signs along roadways and trails.
- Search heavy briars/bushes. REMIND field team leaders to do this.
- Dog teams and ground sweep teams (in separate sectors) expanding from PLS.
- Air scent dog teams and ground search team tasked 100 yards (initially) parallel to roadways.
- Search nearby previous home sites and the region between home sites and PLS.
Other possible considerations (ones that have not been sufficiently addressed in independent studies) include:
- The belief that individuals with more severe dementia will travel shorter distances, demonstrate non-goal directed behavior, and have shorter survivability than those with mild dementia.
- The working hypothesis that Alzheimer’s patients basically wander in a straight line until they get stuck in some type of barrier.
- The view that wandering increases after a cold spell, and colder weather leads to a higher mortality rate.
- The idea that patients in a nursing home may have more severe dementia than those in a private residence. Therefore, wandering from a nursing home may be directed towards returning home or escaping, while the wandering seen from a residence may be caused by disorientation or seeking a favorite place.
Our thanks to Leonard Daughenbaugh of the Inyo Team for this article.
