Seeking: wanderers

By: DAN SIMMONS - Staff Writer
Senior volunteers urge all with Alzheimer's to register, be known | Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:04 PM PST ∞

SAN MARCOS ---- Every third Thursday in San Marcos, it's picture day. A group of three men and one woman with the Sheriff's Volunteer Patrol drives to Alzheimer's care facilities and photographs new residents.

Of course, not everyone's excited about it. One woman was still sleeping Thursday as volunteer Don Peck, 67, snapped a headshot. Another man eating breakfast with his wife asked why they wanted his photo.

"Because you're such a handsome young man," volunteer Faye Rote, 69, told him cheerily before Peck snapped another shot.

The photos and identifying details get entered into a book for use by Sheriff's deputies if the person should go missing, Peck said. And at least 60 percent of people with Alzheimer's wander away from home at some point, said Roberto Velasquez, vice president of programs for the Alzheimer's Association of San Diego.

Those wanderings quickly can turn dangerous, as a recent example in Escondido showed. Maria Coban, a 94-year-old with a history of wandering, escaped from Palomar Heights Care Center last Thanksgiving, according to the California Department of Public Health. She was struck and killed by a car on Grand Avenue.

The tragedy resulted in Palomar Heights receiving a citation and $100,000 fine from state health department. But it also highlights the need for Alzheimer's patients to be registered with local authorities, Peck said.

"If not found in the first 24 hours (of wandering)," he said, "the chances of survival are not good."

The danger tends to be greater for people with Alzheimer's who are still living with family, Peck said, because they're not in a gated facility and are typically cared for by relatives, not professionals.

"They knew them when they didn't haven't Alzheimer's and sometimes have a hard time understanding what the disease does to a person," he said. "Patience wears thin."

Peck said his group has documented 78 people with Alzheimer's in San Marcos, all but one of them in a care facility. But he also knows the number is probably a fraction of the city's total Alzheimer's population.

Velasquez estimated that 90,000 people in San Diego County suffer from the disease, with about a third of them believed to live in North County. The number is expected to jump to 100,000 by 2010 and keep increasing, Velasquez said, as the Baby Boomer generation moves into its golden years.

Peck said his group, one of several run by Sheriff's substations throughout San Diego County, has plenty of volunteers, plenty of time and plenty of motivation to serve more Alzheimer's victims. But he said they need cooperation from family members and friends to register people they know for their services.

Peck pointed to one asset of his group, whose members are all more than 50 years old.

"Our age is a big advantage because (the Alzheimer's patients) can relate to us," he said.

The Sheriff's Senior Volunteer Program began at the Encinitas Sheriff's Station in 1993, volunteer director Sgt. Julie Sutton said. There are now about 500 Senior Volunteer Patrol members countywide, with the San Marcos and Fallbrook stations having the largest volunteer forces.

During fiscal year 2006-07, senior volunteers donated about 300,000 hours of service valued at about $2.3 million, Sutton said. Last November, the San Marcos group was honored by the City Council for 300,000 volunteer hours since its inception.

The volunteers initially go through a two-week training program and their other duties include traffic control, traffic speed surveys, contacting people who are homebound, fingerprinting, assisting with community service projects, working front counters at stations, and patroling areas noted for burglaries, vandalism and violence.

"They provide services that have to provided," Sutton said. "They free up deputies to respond more quickly to calls."

Contact staff writer Dan Simmons at (760) 740-5426 or dsimmons@nctimes.com.

Alzheimer's helpline

The Alzheimer's Association runs a 24-hour helpline to connect people with Alzheimer's and their families to resources throughout San Diego County. Call (800) 272-3900.

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