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Law enforcement officers turn to Arnold School program for guidance on dealing with dementia-related cases
July 22, 2011
Jan Merling from the Arnold School of Public Health leads a class for local law enforcement officers who are often called in on cases involving people with dementia.
With an assist from the Arnold School of Public Health, Richland County deputies and City of Columbia police officers have received training on dealing with persons with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment.
Some 35 officers recently met at USC’s Office for the Study of Aging, where education coordinator Jan Merling led them through Dementia Dialogues, a program aimed at teaching caregivers and others on how to interact with people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and other less common forms of dementia.
Merling is the creator of Dementia Dialogues, which she has taught to more than 15,000 people over the past nine years. The class originally was conceived to train workers in skilled nursing facilities, but interest in the subject has become widespread with the increase in the state’s aging population. Merling now finds herself teaching the class to a wide array of groups across the Palmetto State.
Alzheimer’s disease typically affects those over 65, but it can develop at any age, Merling said. The most prominent symptoms include dementia, short-term and long-term memory loss, language breakdown and, in some cases, irritability and aggression.
Law enforcement agencies, including the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), have sought training from Merling because they are increasingly called on to search for Alzheimer’s patients and other dementia sufferers who wander away from nursing homes or their private residences.
In some parts of the country, the alerts for missing seniors now outnumber those for missing children, and the problem is expected to worsen as the U.S. population continues to age.
USC’s Office for the Study of Aging, which maintains the S.C. Alzheimer’s Disease Registry, listed 63,834 individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and Related Disorders in 2007, the latest year for which there is complete data, Merling said.
The recent class that Merling taught included several law enforcement officers who have the opportunity to interact with dementia victims and their families through social service programs that their departments offer. These programs reach private residences where the majority of dementia sufferers still live.
Richland County’s Project H.O.P.E. – Helping Our Precious Elderly -- serves more than 600 elderly residents in Richland County. The City of Columbia’s program, which has the same goal, is called Project ACE – Assisting Columbia’s Elderly.
Richland County also operates Project Lifesaver, which provides a free electronic tracking service that enables police to track persons who wander. This includes dementia patients, as well as children with autism and Down syndrome and other people with brain disorders.
Deputy Sgt. Amanda Jordan said a Project Lifesaver device can enable police to locate “an at-risk wanderer” within minutes instead of hours.
The impetus for Merling’s recent class for law enforcement officers came from Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott whose deputies were seeking a 64-year-old woman, living in Lower Richland. The woman walked away from her home on May 29.
Lott’s initiative reflects a national trend to train law enforcement and other first responders to the unique issues posed by Alzheimer’s victims.
Lott said he became interested in the Dementia Dialogues program for both personal and professional reasons.
“I’m dealing with the issue myself because my father is an Alzheimer’s patient,” said Lott, whose parents live in Aiken County where law enforcement officers are likely to be called in the event of an emergency.
“I realize we have an aging society, and dementia is something we’re all going to have to deal with,” Lott said.
Deputies can be called to a home on “as small an issue as helping turn off a burglar alarm to helping find someone who has wandered away,” Lott said. “In both instances, I think it’s law enforcement’s responsibility to provide them with the service they need.”
Dementia Dialogues enables law enforcement officers to better communicate and understand the behaviors of dementia victims. Such understanding can help the officer defuse a situation where a dementia victim is combative, Merling said.
Dementia Dialogues is a free program, and Merling offers it on a regular basis throughout South Carolina.
