A Silver Alert is the name for a system to alert the public for a missing person who is particularly vulnerable.
Originally named for elderly, silver-haired missing people with various forms of dementia, the Silver Alert has been expanded to include other categories of vulnerable missing people.
These include
- Alzheimer’s disease, which can affect people as young as 40 years old
- Dementia, which can describe a variety of conditions separate from Alzheimer’s disease
- Developmental disability which can be as a result of a genetic condition or environmental exposure
- Cognitive disabilities such as brain injuries
- Autism , Down Syndrome: not everyone with these conditions is vulnerable
Many people with these conditions can experience memory and other cognitive issues. They may wander away from home, and forget how to get back. For those with dementia in particular, they may believe that they are their younger selves, heading for a job they had in the past, or a childhood home. They may not know they are lost, and may not ask for help.
The Alert
People with the conditions described can vanish in an urban area and be very difficult to locate. They can perish, meters away from assistance. But because nobody knows they are lost, and they can’t ask for help, there is nobody to help them.
A local community alert allows people who live nearby to search their back yards, and keep an eye out for the missing person. The more people who know the person is missing, the greater the chance they will be found in a timely manner.