Active aging
May 2014 • Vol. 35-No. 6 316-942-5385
January 2004 • Vol. 25-No.2
Informing 112,000 55+ readers Southcentral Kansas Serving 80,000 Readers in in South Central Kansas
Where’s Grandma?
When loved ones go missing Questions About Services?
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By Amy Geiszler-Jones In November a Silver Alert was broadcast for a missing 84-year-old Wichita man. He was found the next day in Lawton, Okla., when he was involved in a non-injury traffic crash. In early April, another Silver Alert was issued when an 87-year-old Derby man never arrived to pick up his wife. News reports said the man suffered from dementia and short-term memory loss. He was found safe later that day in Missouri. For nearly a decade, various states have adopted a public notification system called Silver Alerts to broadcast information when an at-risk adult goes missing. Kansas started using the Silver Alert system in 2009. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, six in 10 people with dementia will wander. Statistics say up to half of those wanderers suffer serious injuries or death if not found within 24 hours, so fast action is crucial. Many of those wanderers may do it again, said Linsey Norton, program director with the Central and Western Kansas chapter of the Alzheimer’s
Association. With America’s growing elderly population, the Silver Alerts – which are issued by various law enforcement agencies and broadcast by radio and TV stations and even social media – can play an important role in helping find those who’ve gone missing.
them at risk, or could be a risk to themselves. Silver Alerts have been issued for Kansas’ citizens more than 35 times since 2009, according to Clint Blaes with the Kansas Attorney General’s office, which is notified of every Silver Alert by the issuing Kansas law enforcement agency. Ten of the 35 alerts were issued in 2013 alone, he said.
What to do
But Silver Alerts aren’t issued for every senior citizen who goes missing, said Sedgwick County Deputy Christy Fischer. “An adult who is of sound mind has the right to walk off or drive away,” says Fischer. In Kansas, there are specific guidelines about issuing a Silver Alert, which include that the older adult is suffering from dementia, has a reported medical or mental condition that puts
If you have an at-risk family member, have an emergency plan in place in case he or she goes missing, say the Alzheimer’s Association and law enforcement officials. If an adult loved one with risk factors has gone missing, it should be reported to 911 immediately, said Lt. Doug Nolte with the Wichita Police Department. The Alzheimer’s Association advises that you limit a search of the immediate area to 15 minutes or less. “One of the biggest things we need to do is to sit down with the calling party and do our absolute best to get a full history, much greater than with See Silver Alert, page 3
I didn’t forget to say thank you By J.C. Combs The spring of my first year in grade school I was asked to be the musical entertainment at the Clearmont alumni banquet. This was the biggest event of the year in our small town. Graduates came from miles around. There was a potluck dinner, followed by the official program that consisted of introducing the classes and the entertainment. Before I was to perform, a former resident who had become a fairly successful politician was asked to say a few words. He talked for about 20 minutes, mostly telling the audience how important his mother was to his career: Without her he would have never accomplished all of the great things he was able to accomplish, and on and on. That’s when it hit me to go off script. I was introduced and proudly walked on stage. Dorothy McMasters took her place at the piano and gave me my starting
note. My mother, near the front row, was ready to prompt me in case I would forget a lyric. Boy was she in for a surprise. Instead of starting my song, I stepped to the front of the stage: “Before I sing I want to thank my mother.” My mother froze. Then she began to shake her head and mouth the words “No! No!” But it was too late; I was on a roll. I tried to remember what the politician had said about his mother so that I could use some of his words to praise my mother. I rambled, saying something like, “I would never have gotten this far in show business if it hadn’t been for MY MOTHER.” Poor mother. She approached the stage and said, with a fixed stare and pale lips, “Sing!” I did! We left the gymnasium in a hurry that night. It was the longest three blocks I have ever traveled.
Courtesy photo
J.C. Combs; his mother, Louise; and a young cousin.
My poor mother had never been so humiliated. As the days passed she began to reflect on the ramblings of a little
See Mother’s Day, page 3