A Silver Alert was put out last week for a missing Palm Beach woman who suffers with dementia. Nancy Dodson was last seen at her home at about 7 p.m. Tuesday evening. This is the second dementia patient who has gone missing in a month. On June 28, 2010, 80 year old Patrick Scales went missing. He was last seen walking from his Century Village home in West Palm Beach. Authorities put out a bulletin requesting information from anyone who might have spotted Mr. Scales.

At the time of Scales' disappearance, The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office believed that he may have suffered from dementia. Five days later, on Friday morning of July 2, 2010 landscaping workers at the Arrigo Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealership saw a body lyng in a dry drainage ditch near the Florida turnpike, and called authorities. The dealership is located in the 6500 block of Okeechobee Blvd., just a few miles from Scales' home. Yesterday, the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner confirmed that the decomposed body was that of Patrick J. Scales http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/missing-man-found-near-floridas-turnpike-identified-810548.html.

In October of 2008, Florida Governor Charles Crist signed an executive order which enacted Florida's Silver Alert Plan. This is similar to the Amber Alert for missing children. SIlver Alert is a plan to help law enforcement rescue persons with Alzheimer's or other dementias, who are driving a car and get lost. Unfortunately, Patrick Scales was on foot, therefore the SIlver Alert plan couldn't help him. What can be done to protect and save seniors with dementias, who have already had their cars taken away from them?

Wandering is unique to dementia, and it occurs when seniors become disoriented and lost. It is very common for these seniors to wander away from home, on foot. According to senior spectrum.com, six out of 10 people with Alzheimer's disease will wander, and seven out of 10 will do so repeatedly. If not found within the first 24 hours, up to half of all persons with dementia who wander will become seriously injured or die. http://senior-spectrum.com/news01_020910/

One solution being promoted by advocates is the use of personal GPS tracking devices to help locate dementia patients within minutes of the realization they have gone missing. GTX Corp has developed a GPS shoe which is slated to sell in stores this summer. GPS shoes, which will be sold at www.foot.com will contain a tiny embedded tracking device. WHever the wearer wanders off more than a pre-set distance, the caregiver will receive an alert by telephone and computer. The device will work anywhere there is cell reception. If Patrick Scales had been wearing the shoes when he wandered away from his home, he might have been found alive.

The Silver Alert did work in finding Mrs. Dodson alive. I just wonder if we need more.