Offering a Helping Hand Home

Detective Heather Clark, who has worked thousands of cases for the Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD), knows the horror and frustration of not being able to help an elder who does not know how to get home. She distinctly remembers a case of the 78-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s who was a missing person. A few people had sighted the woman and called in, but there was no resource for them to be able to identify her. Days later, the woman was found deceased. The grief and tragedy of this case stuck with Clark and has motivated her and her colleagues to start an ID program for at-risk adults in Santa Barbara.

“As people get older, they stop driving and no longer need an ID to show that they are 21, so many of them just do not get another ID,” said Clark. “As a result, we have no current information or data on them in our system and, so, if they become lost, it is challenging for us to reunite them with their families, which is why we want to find a solution.”

Clark and the SBPD learned about the ID program for at-risk adults from the Camarillo Police Department. Other police departments have used bracelets or alarms, but the SBPD liked Camarillo’s ID system because it maintained respect and avoided embarrassment for seniors. The ID card contains a picture, up-to-date contact information for a caregiver, any diagnoses and other pertinent information regarding the individual. That way, when a lost adult comes to the police department seeking help, officers have a tool and resource to help them reunite with their families.

“Often, senior citizens come to us knowing they are lost and, sometimes, they even drive because that is something they remember how to do, even if they do not remember where they live,” said Clark. “Then, it takes an officer hours to try to find up-to-date contact information and tease out details from the individual, a nugget at a time, to get them home.”

The best and most important part about this program is that we get to reunite lost adults with their families and caregivers Detective Heather Clark

Utilizing the members of Volunteers in Policing (VIPs) that generously donate their time to the SBPD, the department hopes to include the adult ID card program as part of the volunteers’ outreach to the community in the upcoming months. To actually create the ID cards, the SBPD is relying on a grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Capital Improvement Grant to the SBPD Foundation. Consistent with much of the Santa Barbara Foundation’s work in the Community Caregiving Initiative, the grant will provide resources for the SBPD Foundation to purchase equipment and educate both family caregivers and caregiving organizations about the benefits of the program.

“The best and most important part about this program is that we get to reunite lost adults with their families and caregivers,” said Clark. “This project is only going to get off of the ground because of the Santa Barbara Foundation’s assistance and dedication to the community.”

For more information about the Santa Barbara Foundation’s grant programs, please contact Kathy Simas, ksimas@sbfoundation.org.