Afraid of startling her, you ponder whether to stop and see if she needs help. You opt for a careful approach.
The woman doesn't seem scared, however, she can't tell you where she lives or what she's doing outside in her pajamas. You accompany her along nearby streets, and finally she sees a house she recognizes. Luckily it is her home, and her husband is there to welcome her. He hadn't realized she'd strayed and was grateful to have her safely escorted home.
To help avoid situations like this, the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) and the state attorney general have implemented a system they hope will bring a greater sense of security for people with Alzheimer's or dementia and their loved ones.
Home Safe
AlaSafe is an online database that provides law enforcement officers with information about Alzheimer's and dementia sufferers who wander or get lost. Officers can look up information to locate a person already listed as missing; or an officer can input information about a person they find wandering to learn his or her identity and home address. The database has been live for only one month, but ACJIC Director Maury Mitchell hopes it will soon make locating and returning Alzheimer's patients to their homes easier and quicker.
The project was easy to implement from a technical standpoint, because the ACJIC staff used hardware and software already in place.
AlaSafe is an addition to Alabama's Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS), a statewide Web-based search engine that allows officers to search through pertinent information including criminal history, drivers' licenses, misdemeanor index, warrants etc. However, AlaSafe information related to Alzheimer's patients is kept separate from other information in the system, so officers will only see the information related to finding or identifying a lost person. Furthermore, LETS is only available to law enforcement personnel, and system usage is monitored.
"We certainly are taking the privacy concerns very strongly," Mitchell said. "You have to specifically look for someone in this database to do this kind of query. We record all the queries that go into it so we know who was doing what, or who looked at what."
In addition, public access is limited, and a person can only view the information of the person he or she has registered. That feature is important for AlaSafe users, because the database contains very private information, Mitchell said, "especially about some of these very vulnerable members of our society."
Important Information
The information requested on AlaSafe is extensive. In fact, deciding what information to gather for registrants took many months of collaborative effort. The ACJIC worked with the state's senior services department, Alzheimer's associations, the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and law enforcement agencies to decide what information would be most helpful when dealing with lost Alzheimer's patients who may be confused or upset.
"It's pretty exhaustive," Mitchell said of the required list of information. "This is because we dealt with the experts. We didn't just come up with our own little list of what we want to do."
In addition to a basic physical description of the patient, the list includes allergies and medications, contact numbers for family members and doctors, and a photo of the individual. AlaSafe also provides space for sharing helpful tips with officers when approaching the registered person, such as places he or she often visits, or a memory or story the person tells repeatedly.
The ACJIC also works hard to ensure Alasafe.gov is accessible and understandable even to the least computer savvy. The Web site is available in multiple font sizes, and most answers can be found through just one link.
A printable PDF file describing the registration process is also available so citizens can be informed and prepared when they begin the process. In addition, Alabama's senior services agency and organizations, as well as local police departments, sometimes host registration days for citizens who need help registering their loved ones.
