Wahnapitae resident Tammy Belamy was diagnosed with early onset Lewi Body dementia six years ago.
Lewi Body is a type of dementia that shares symptoms with both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Belamy said is affects her auditory, visual and olfactory senses and causes hallucinations, along with the other dementia symptoms, and mobility issues associated with Parkinson's disease.
Belamy said when she started experiencing symptoms at the age of 47, she went to her doctor.
“The first thing I remember her telling me, is that I would lose my driver's licence,” Belamy said. “I wanted a second opinion, so I went to a doctor in Toronto, and after a full day of testing, I was diagnosed with Lewi Body dementia, and told I would never work or drive again.”
And she hasn't.
“They took my licence right away, and that has been a huge problem. In the North, you need transportation. If you're under the age of 65, you're not eligible for Red Cross, and Handi-Transit is only for people with mobility issues. Sometimes, it feel like I'm trapped.”
Belamy was invited to watch Greater Sudbury Police Service's Search and Rescue team train on Friday morning. They focused their training on finding someone with dementia after they went missing. It's a scenario with which Belamy is familiar.
“It's happened to me,” she said. “We live in the bush. My husband has painted trees and put up orange flags, so that if I'm out there, I know that's the way home.”
She said she was excited to see the police training for this, “because it happens so easily, and sometimes, we don't even realize we're lost.”
Insp. Todd Zimmerman said training scenarios like this one happen often to ensure skills are current.
He said focusing on dementia patients helps officers to become familiar with the vulnerable persons registry. Alzheimer patients are encouraged to sign up for the registry, which provides important information like photographs, places they frequent or where they may have wandered before.
“It helps narrow the search,” Zimmerman said. “It's an emergency, and it's important we find the person as soon as possible and in the best condition.”
Greater Sudbury Police conduct numerous searches every year, Zimmerman said. Each platoon has search-trained officers, and the majority of those calls are resolved quite quickly. However, four or five calls a year require a lot more work, and can include dementia patients who have wandered, lost blueberry pickers, or people who are just unfamiliar with the area.
In this particular training scenario, a woman in her 40s wandered away from home when walking her dog. She ended up getting lost.
“It's far more common than a lot of people think,” said Jessica Bertuzzi, public relations director, Alzheimer's Society Sudbury-Manitoulin North Bay and Districts. “We need to stress that people with dementia aren't just those over the age of 65 and in long-term care. There are many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s living at home, and the chance of them wandering is quite high.”
To have the police focus their search and rescue training on those people was very important, she said. “The search and rescue team today was amazing,” she said.
“Every person with dementia is different. Most often, people who wander and get lost aren't dressed appropriately. They might leave their home in the middle of winter, and they might not have a coat on, so finding them as soon as possible is of the utmost importance.”
The reason for wandering is different for everyone, and they may not even consider themselves missing, which is why having the police trained on how to approach a person with dementia and how to communicate with them properly is vital.
There are about 5,000 people in the catchment area (Sudbury, North Bay, Manitoulin) diagnosed with dementia, Bertuzzi said. That being said, accurate numbers are difficult to get, because so many people don't report their disease.
“I would say the number is actually significantly higher.”
