Barbara Brunson, 66 Missing/Ment.Hand./Diabetic 8/7/08 SC
Woman missing from Sumter facility -- again Posted: Aug 7, 2008 10:51 PM EDT Updated: Aug 13, 2008 12:55 AM EDT SUMTER, SC (WIS) - Sumter police are asking for help finding a woman who walked away from an assisted living facility, and not for the first time. Barbara Brunson is 66 years old, and for the past five years she's lived at Greene's Residential Care Facility. But on Monday, employees, reported to the Sumter Police Department that she walked away. She hasn't been seen since. And what's scarier, her medical chart shows she's mildly retarded, has dementia, schizophrenia, hypertension and is a diabetic. Thursday we talked to the facility's administrator. WIS News 10: How does something like this happen? Administrator Carl Greene: Well it's hard to say because you got a lot of people, we provide a home-like environment for them and if they want to go to the store, we let them go to the store, the one's that can go. And she was one of the ones that could go to the store, you know. The day Barbara went missing, Mr. Greene says she asked one of the employees for some hair products and told staff that she would wait for it on the front porch where residents often sit. "She got tired of waiting I guess and she just walked off, which is what she does sometimes," says Greene. Not just sometimes. Mr. Greene admits this has happened five times in the past six months. In fact he told us she was missing just last week. WIS News 10: When is the point when enough is enough? Mr. Greene: She's been gone so many times, it's kind of hard to say, because you have people so long you get attached to them and so you don't have no deadline set on them. You keep trying to help them, you know? Mr. Greene says he tried to transfer Barbara to another facility where there's a fence, but he says there are no openings. While working on this story we learned about a program called the Silver Alert. It's just like the Amber Alert, except the focus is on finding senior citizens like Barbara, who may have dementia. We did some research and learned that Georgia and North Carolina have the silver alert but we do not have it in South Carolina. Reported by Trey Paul Posted by Logan Smith http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8808907

"Silver Alert" could be a reality in SC soon Posted: Aug 8, 2008 10:33 PM EDT Updated: Aug 14, 2008 09:50 AM EDT SUMTER, SC (WIS) - The search continues for a missing Sumter woman. Authorities used four-wheelers Friday in the area around the care facility where Barbara Brunson lived. She walked away from it Monday, and has not been seen since. Thursday on Nightcast, we told you about the "Silver Alert." It's just like the Amber Alert, except the focus is on finding senior citizens like Barbara. Friday a viewer wrote, "This is why we need the silver alert program. Please continue your research/investigation concerning this." So we talked to the state's Office on Aging and found out it's a program that could be in South Carolina's future. If you had to put a face with what the Silver Alert means, it might be Barbara Brunson's. On Monday, staff at Greene's Residential Care Facility, where Barbara lives, told Sumter police that Barbara walked away. Friday makes five days she's been gone. We later learned from the facility's administrator that Barbara has done this five times in the past six months. That's not to mention that her medical chart shows she suffers from mental illness, including dementia and schizophrenia. Friday we spoke with John Legare with the Office on Aging. "Many times they'll be overlooked. When a child's by themselves, it seems odd. When a senior is by themselves, they try to respect people's privacy more than anything else," says Legare. While working on this story, we learned about a program called the Silver Alert. It's just like the Amber Alert, except it focuses on finding senior citizens like Barbara. The Amber Alert is present in all 50 states. But according to the National Association of State Units on Aging, the Silver Alert is only present in seven, including our neighbors Georgia and North Carolina. But Friday we learned that the Office on Aging will be meeting in two weeks to discuss bringing the plan to South Carolina. "Silver Alert is a fairly new program, at least in the southeast. I know a couple of other states including North Carolina do have it, and it's one we'd like to emulate and it's one that's going to be a priority of the Lt. Governor in the future," says Legare. Once Lt. Governor Andre Bauer meets with law enforcement officers to discuss the plan for South Carolina, the next step will be getting it introduced in the legislature. Legare says the chances of that happening this session are good. You can count on 10 to continue following this story. http://www.wistv.com/global/story.asp?s=8814527

Silver Alerts Help Track Wandering Seniors POSTED: 5:39 am PDT September 15, 2008 UPDATED: 6:43 am PDT September 16, 2008 With the elderly making up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, police and caregivers will have to spend ever-increasing time and money in coming years to keep tabs on older Americans with Alzheimer's disease, lawmakers and advocates for the elderly warn. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's is expected to triple by 2050 - to more than 16 million. About 60 percent of such patients wander away from their homes or care facilities at some point, according to the Alzheimer's Association; about half of those who are not found within 24 hours suffer serious injury or even death. Figures like that are spurring lawmakers to come up with ways to help police find senior citizens who have gone missing. One of the more prominent ideas, usually called Silver Alerts, piggybacks on the success of the Amber Alert program, which broadcasts media bulletins and posts lookout information on highway signs when a child is reported missing. Lois Hogan, director of the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, which instituted Silver Alerts last November, said many dementia patients "really don't know where they're going or how to protect themselves. It is usually a life-threatening situation. The faster we can find them, the better off it will be." Of the nearly 40 alerts issued in North Carolina, all but four of the missing subjects were found alive, the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety said. The numbers are almost identical in Texas, where a similar program was also implemented last year. "These programs have shown that with timely notification because a Silver Alert system is in place, the chances of the missing individual being found greatly increase," said Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, who cared for his own father as he struggled through the final stages of Alzheimer's. Efforts to expand alerts quicken Latham noted that few states have senior alert programs, however - only 11, with others considering them. That's not enough, he said, pointing to the statistics on missing Alzheimer's patients. "That's 3 million missing mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. These people are our neighbors, our parents, our grandparents and our friends," Latham said. The House Judiciary Committee last week sent to the floor a bill sponsored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, which would establish a national Silver Alert communications network to coordinate search efforts and give grants to states to take part. Police and policy-makers said they would welcome the help, saying that, in general, it is harder to find a missing senior citizen than it is to find a missing child. "Many times they'll be overlooked," said John Legare, a spokesman for the state Office on Aging in South Carolina, where officials are examining proposals for a Silver Alert system after the disappearance last month of Barbara Brunson, 66, from her assisted-care facility in Sumter. It was the fifth time Brunson, who remains missing, had disappeared. Even though doctors said she suffers from dementia and schizophrenia, there is no reason for anyone who may have seen her on the street to have suspected that anything was wrong, Legare said. "When a child's by themselves, it seems odd," Legare said. But "when a senior is by themselves, they try to respect people's privacy more than anything else." Radio bracelet cuts costs, time That means police often get a late start on search efforts, which take on added urgency the longer a frail elderly person is missing, said Edward Rochford, sheriff of Morris County, N.J. "It would take anywhere from seven to nine hours with maybe 40 to 60 rescue people out there looking for the person," Rochford said. New Jersey doesn't have senior alerts, so the Morris County Sheriff's Office is trying something different, joining more than 700 other local agencies in 43 states that take part in Project Lifesaver. The program allows primary caregivers to outfit their elderly relatives with a radio transmitter worn on the wrist. When people are reported missing, one or two officers can usually track them within a few minutes. Last week, Project Lifesaver recorded its 1,700th rescue, according to the nonprofit Project Lifesaver Foundation, which was established in Chesapeake, Va., in 1999. Costs for Project Lifesaver vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction - Morris County charges $285 for the transmitter, plus about $15 a month for batteries and maintenance - and it covers only those people who are wearing the bracelet. Silver Alerts, by contrast, can be issued for any missing senior citizen. "The thought of establishing a Silver Alert network that would be nationwide would at least have the entire city, town, state looking for someone," said Eric Hall, president of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. "Hopefully, will be as successful as Amber Alert has been." http://www.knbc.com/health/17477434/detail.html