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Help Missing Seniors Get Home: Make the Silver Alert Span the Nation!
Final signature count: 4,793
4,793 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Alzheimer's Site
Elderly people with mental health conditions are prone to wandering. We all need to help get them back!
According to the New York Times, more than half of dementia patients will wander at least once during their lives. And since dementia impacts about half of the population over the age of 85, this is a growing problem in our aging society.
Wandering puts our elderly at severe risk. Some could be the victims of crimes or accidents, while others could suffer from harsh elements like cold and rain, and become dehydrated and malnourished. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that an elderly person not found within 24 hours has about a 50% chance of serious injury or death while wandering. That is why it is so important that we put a program in place to help discover missing seniors more quickly. The first several hours are the most vital to ensuring the individual will be returned safely to his or her family.
A nationwide “Silver Alert” program is the answer to this issue. The system uses the public’s help to find missing elderly people in the same way that Amber Alerts ask citizens to help find missing children. “Crowdsourcing” this crisis out to members of the community at large means bringing people home faster, before they run into trouble.
The “Silver Alert” program already exists and works well in the areas where it is used. However, for this to be a truly effective program, it needs to be in place nationwide.
Sign below to tell the Department of Justice that we need a “Silver Alert” program to be implemented across the entire United States.
