Silver Alerts Help Find Disoriented Elderly

Dec. 23, 2008 — -- When 86-year-old Mary Zeltzer of Largo, Fla., failed to return to her assisted-living complex in February after driving to pick up groceries at a local market, her daughter, Mary Lallucci, became worried.

Seven days later, Lallucci found her mother dead from drowning in her car at the bottom of Florida's Intracoastal Waterway.

"My mother had obviously become disoriented and drove six miles off track and ended up on a street that led to a boat ramp," said Lallucci, whose mother had dementia. "She drove down it and into the water and drowned."

Lallucci of Tallahassee said that if Silver Alert -- a warning system used to notify communities of missing elderly people -- had been around at the time of her mother's disappearance, Zeltzer might still be alive.

"Unfortunately, I'll never know if Silver Alert would have saved my mom," said Lallucci, who hopes to one day become the national spokeswoman for Silver Alert should Congress pass the National Silver Alert Act, which awaits Senate approval.

"I absolutely think the alert would have helped -- within hours of when you call a Silver Alert, thousands of eyes are there looking for the car and the license plate," she said.

Silver Alert -- similar to Amber Alert, which authorities use to inform the public about missing children by interrupting television and radio programs and displaying the information on electronic highway signs -- is available in 12 states, including Florida, which has issued 28 alerts since launching its program in October.

Instead of using television stations and electronic highway signs to notify the public about endangered children, Silver Alert calls attention to missing members of the elderly community.

About 5.2 million people in the United States live with Alzheimer's , 200,000 of whom experienced early onset of the disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

And while the protocol for activating a Silver Alert varies from state to state, most of the 12 states that have the program require local law enforcement to confirm that the missing person is a danger to himself or others and that the individual suffers from some sort of dementia before issuing the alert.

In Ohio, for example, sufficient information that will help the public identify the missing person, such as a make or model of a car the older person might have been driving, must be available before an alert can be issued. The missing individual must also be at least 65. In North Carolina, the age limitation is much lower -- missing people can be as young as 18 as long as there is a verified developmental disability at the time of their disappearance.

In Florida, the state with the second-highest population of people 65 or older -- California ranks No. 1 -- a Silver Alert can be issued for people 60 or older who have clearly indicated that they have an irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties. In more extreme cases, people 18 to 59 can also fall under the guidelines for a Silver Alert if they, too, show signs of dementia and a lack of capacity to consent.