Ontario residents now have access to a new program to prevent and prepare for instances where people living with dementia wander off and go missing.
The Alzheimer Society of Ontario recently launched the Finding Your Way Wandering Prevention Program, supported by the Ontario government as part of its Action Plan for Seniors. So far, funding has reached almost $1 million, according to the provincial government. Under the new program, people caring for dementia patients will have access to kits including information for people caring for someone with dementia as well as various services and tools available in case that person wanders off.
They will include information about how to access services such as identification forms that can be shared with police in an emergency, safety tips to prevent wandering, and ways to locate a missing person using devices such as GPS or radio signals. Prices vary depending on the services.
"They've taken what was available through the Alzheimer Society and made it better," says Wendy Birkhan, a registered social worker and director of operations at Homewatch CareGivers in Ottawa.
The program is unique because of its wide, multilingual reach and how it concentrates information and services into a single place, says Joanne Dyson, spokesperson for the Alzheimer Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County. The kits are available in English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi upon request from local Alzheimer Societies in Ontario.
Another service highlighted in the kits is the MedicAlert Safely Home program where caregivers can register someone with dementia so their information is kept in a database. The person is given identification jewellery such as a bracelet with a hotline number so that if they wander off, anyone who finds them can determine who they are and where they live. This is important because the person with dementia may not be able to communicate this information, Dyson says.
This type of identification can keep individuals out of hospitals, which can be stressful environments, where they are currently taken if they are found and unable to communicate.
"At the hospital, they're often traumatized. They are exposed to germs. They are disoriented," Birkhan says.
These services also help address the fact that there are more seniors living alone than in the past as people have fewer children and live apart from them, says Dominique Paris-MacKay, director of Age Friendly Ottawa at the Council on Aging of Ottawa.
"It creates a situation that wasn’t there in the past where children were around to help parents," she says.
The number of Canadians living with dementia is increasing as the nation's population ages. "Age is the biggest risk factor in developing Alzheimer's or other dementia," Dyson says.
She adds the risk of dementia doubles every five years after age 65.
Another reason for this increase is that more cases are being identified as the ability to diagnose dementia improves, she adds.
Canada is not prepared to handle this growing phenomenon, Paris-MacKay says.
There are an estimated 15,000 people living with Alzheimer's or other dementia in Ottawa and Renfrew County, while there are about 2,500 additional cases each year. Dyson says she expects this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.
Currently, three out of five people with dementia go missing at least once, Dyson says. Among the number of people missing for more than 24 hours, half of them suffer a serious injury such as exposure, dehydration, or hypothermia. Yet, most of those missing are usually less than 2.5 kilometres away from where they were last seen, she says.
Raising awareness about wandering is important for people caring for someone with dementia as well as the public, Birkhan says.
"Families think it's a one time occurrence when their loved one has been lost," she says, "And it's by chance that they've come home."
The Ontario Police College will also be involved in the new program by raising awareness among officers about people with dementia and wandering, says Dyson.
The kits will also be available in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese next year.