The onset of dementia brings many changes and challenges, but the right supports can help people with dementia maintain their independence and quality of life for longer. That’s why supporting effective solutions for people with dementia and the people who care for them is a core priority in our healthy aging strategy.
Across Michigan, our grantees and partners are working to make their communities more dementia-friendly through new and innovative approaches. One exciting example comes from the Battle Creek Community Foundation’s Miles for Memories program, which offers a range of resources to people with dementia, their families, and communities.
Technology solutions
It’s common for people with dementia to leave their homes and become disoriented in the community. This behavior can lead to confusion and distress for people with dementia and their families, along with expense for law enforcement and emergency departments, where individuals without identification are often taken for assessment before they can be identified and returned home.
Health Fund grants have helped Miles for Memories develop, test, and scale up a simple, but effective, technology intervention to help people in these situations get home faster and with less anxiety and expense.
The solution? A comfortable, waterproof, rechargeable bracelet that digitally stores emergency contacts and information needed to return the person home, along with links to their medical information in the event of a health emergency.
Miles for Memories began developing the bracelet concept after being approached by law enforcement agencies looking for help. A 2017 Health Fund Healthy Aging grant help put the concept into practice and develop a pilot program in Calhoun County that included training for law enforcement and health care providers on the bracelets’ use.
“I thought the pilot program would take a couple of years just to get off the ground, but by the end of our first grant, we had 35 individuals who were returned without a trip in an ambulance or a visit to the ER,” said Sherii Sherban, Miles for Memories’ Leadership Committee Chair. “After two years, the health care savings from the pilot exceeded the total amount of the grant.”
Expanding across Michigan
The Health Fund invested in a second grant in 2019 to help expand on the success of the initial pilot by supporting outreach and training on the bracelet program to emergency service providers and hospitals across the state.
Individuals from every county in Michigan received the training, with additional programs sprouting in at least five other locations. This includes Alpena, where the Health Fund has invested to help the Alpena Area Senior Citizens Council deploy the bracelets as part of a project to foster positive interactions between the community and people with dementia.
Meanwhile, numerous ERs and first responders across the state have also begun distributing bracelets to families, and individuals can also purchase their own.
Sherban said that participating agencies have reported 385 safe returns resulting from the program, producing an estimated health care savings cost of $1,750,000. And there are likely more success stories not reported back to Miles for Memories.
“If we can help just one person come home, it would be worth the effort,” Sherban said.
Spreading the word
Sherban will share more about the safe return project as part of a panel of Health Fund grantees who will present alongside our staff at the Grantmakers in Aging conference in Detroit in October. We hope the session will help aging innovators in Michigan share their successes and lessons learned with health funders from across the country. Learn more at GIAaging.org.