MD Cops Bring Home Elderly Woman, Call for Respect of Dementia

[Capt. Obvious]

We often talk about the rewards of police work. On Friday, we captured a moment.

Officers responded to a 911 call from a woman who reported her 81-year-old mother missing. It seems her mother left her house to take her daily walk up and down the driveway, but when she didn't return, things got a bit scary because the woman's mother has dementia. Officers P. DeBoe, C. Caywood, B. Morrison, Sgt. C. Black, and Cpl. C. Clevenger and his K9 partner responded to the scene and began a search of the heavily wooded area.

After 40 minutes, the woman was found. At first, she seemed confused at the sudden appearance of police officers on the tree-lined trail, and she asked if the officers were out taking a walk too. They quietly replied 'Yes," after all, it was a beautiful day. And then she seemed relieved and told them she had lost her way. "No problem," said Officer Morrison who then gently took her hand and, along with the other officers walked her back to her house. Along the way, the officers made small talk with the woman, to make her feel at ease. When asked what the key to a long, healthy life was, the woman replied, "Eat good and stay active."

Officers encounter different situations every day. Some good, some not so good. In this case, a frightening situation for the family ended happily. For that, they were thankful. For us, it's the rewarding part of policing. #CCSOPRIDE #RESPECTTHOSEWITHDEMENTIA

Police FB Page

[MADem]

1. This deserves a kick, especially today, with all the distressing news out of Europe. nt

[FSogol]

2. Nice story. Thanks for posting. n/t

[Brickbat]

3. It's easy to "respect dementia" when it looks like a sweet, feeble lady in a nice sweater who has

lost her way in the woods. I guess I'd like to see how they act when it's an angry, raving, unkempt woman in a housedress she's worn for three days, yelling on the stairway in public housing.

[HockeyMom]

4. My SIL was pounding on the doors of a stranger's car

She had rented a car on a trip to Florida and thought this woman's car was her's at home. The woman called the cops and my SIL gave them her son's cell phone number who came to get her.

Another time she was out on LI (lived in Queens) and drove into Manhattan thinking she was somewhere in QUEENS. She asked the police where Maspeth was and they told her, "Lady, that is the Empire State Building next to you." "You are in Manhattan". A female NYPD drove her car home with her inside and told her husband he needed to get her help.

After that, the family had her diagnosed (dementia), and took away her keys to the car. My SIL was 68 when all this happened.

[enough]

5. Or an angry hostile paranoid old man who still has all his physical strength

and all the rage of a lifetime to back it up. Speaking from experience. That is when it gets very hard to respect dementia, but we still need to do it as best we can. Not easy at all.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

6. Or a person with a gun n/m

[jwirr]

8. Or an elderly gentleman who has left the house naked. My

mother kept trying to secure a weapon - a pencil, a butter knife etc. - because the nursing home windows over looked the emergency entrance in the hospital - the vehicles would come in with their sirens blaring.

I am very happy about how these police officers handled this - just wish all law enforcement would give the same respect when doing their job. I think they would get a lot of that respect back if they did.

[KT2000]

7. sweet picture

my nephew is a policeman and he does things like this - in fact this guy looks like him, but wrong state.

[Hortensis]

9. Nice story. And sweet of them not to embarrass

her by explaining what they were doing there.

Before the era of electronics, and I should add tougher regulation of care facilities, my side of town had a 15 mph speed limit on its busiest commuter artery as it passed a smallish multi-level-of-care facility. Now and then someone would slip out who wasn't supposed to and try to cross the street to the shopping center on the other side, so each day thousands of drivers funneled past toward the freeway, shopping, work, and back, were "involved" willy-nilly in keeping them safe. Looking back, it actually seems nice too. We all knew why and to keep an eye out for old people.

[Generic Other]

10. Good to see a positive story about the police

The bad ones get too much attention while the good ones don't get enough.

[SoapBox]

11. Yup.

[hedgehog]

13. That reminds me of the complaint that the bad kids at school get all the attention

while the good kids do not. How do we award the good ones without forgetting to take care of correcting the bad ones?

[dembotoz]

12. i have had close relatives deal with this sort of stuff with their parents

would not wish that on anyone

[RazBerryBeret]

14. going thru this with my mom

We recently put her in assisted living care for this reason.
Hardest decision I've made yet.

[FlatBaroque]

15. The most effective way to make your mom's stay in assisted living safe and comfortable

as possible is for the family to remain actively involved. I was an AL executive director and while it was the most rewarding job of my career, the pain of watching people wither because their family basically abandoned them, was unbearable. I lived on site so I would spend many nights keeping company with the memory support unit residents (people with dementia tend to be up at night a lot.)

Good luck to you. It is indeed a horribly difficult decision.

[RazBerryBeret]

16. Thank You

good advice. it's only been 2 months, but she seems to be doing so much better without the added stress of bills, food etc. it still makes me sad to think about her days even though she's busy with their activities. I can't imagine the emotional roller coaster of living on site in a facility like that.... it had to be so rewarding yet heart breaking. thank you.

[Jokerman]

17. Local police gave my dad a ride home from the supermarket.

He hid his growing dementia very well. We were just beginning realize how bad it was getting when a supermarket employee found him wandering confused through the isles and called police.

They locked his car, gave him a ride home and called me to let me know what happened.

Taking away my dad's car became a sore spot in an already strained relationship. He resented it for the rest of his life but he had become a danger to himself and to others so I don't regret it one bit.