Six Months In, Alzheimer's Response Team Shows Promising Results

In California's East County, the Alzheimer's Response Team has managed 50 referrals and opened 22 assistance cases in its first six months of its pilot operation, with eight cases involving severe symptoms such as wandering or lashing out at caregivers, reports the San Diego Union Tribune . County Supervisor Dianne Jacob called these results encouraging, because each represents a situation where a family caring for a loved one with dementia got help without them winding up in either a local emergency room or lock-up. The team is composed of deputy sheriffs, firefighters, and other first responders in Santee and Lakeside, who collaborate with social workers and other dementia specialists with the county's department of Aging & Independence Services and the Alzheimer's San Diego nonprofit. Aging & Independence Services Director Kimberly Gallo said training first responders on dementia, and instructing them on the types of actions most likely to worsen a situation, constituted the bulk of the pilot's initial effort. "We trained more than 350 responders, social workers, mental health clinicians, and others," Gallo noted. Some officials are already thinking about how to expand the program to other communities throughout the region.