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Freddie Adams : Cleveland, OH

Silver Alert Program Is Questioned!

Researchers from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, are questioning aspects of the nearly 2-year-old Silver Alert program.

A Silver Alert is issued when an adult with mental impairments or who is older than 65 disappears. When that happens, information on the missing person is sent to media outlets and law enforcement agencies throughout the state. The information is also posted on electronic billboards and Ohio Lottery terminals.

It is similar to the Amber Alert, which is circulated when a child is missing.

The researchers have three primary concerns about Silver Alerts, according to their article that was published in the February issue of The Gerontologist. First, they call for more research on the program, its effectiveness and the behavior of wandering in adults who have dementia. Second, they say Silver Alerts raise issues of privacy that must be measured against the person’s safety. Finally, the article says the program perpetuates stereotypes of older adults “as needy, expensive and burdensome to society.”

The article concludes with the researchers saying, “Without further examination, we are concerned that the widespread, and what appears to be unquestioned, institution of Silver Alert plans might do harm to elders by removing civil liberties of those who are the subjects of such alerts and reinforce negative stereotypes of elders.”

Dr. Dawn Carr is a gerontologist and one of the seven researchers who helped compile data for the article. She said the Silver Alert program is done with good intentions, but it also raises complicated issues that should be considered.

“The obvious part of the discussion is that we want to help these people. The less obvious part is that by helping are we also hurting,” she said.

Lake County Sheriff Daniel Dunlap said the issue may be less complicated than the researchers suggest.

“I think somebody’s overthinking this. There is no intention to violate anyone’s civil liberty,” he said. “This is strictly, on the mark, a safety issue.”

Seventeen states have Silver Alert programs. The article states that, in some states, Silver Alerts include information like addresses that can be used to victimize the missing adult months after the event.

In Ohio, authorities only release a description of the person, a photo, their name, the area in which they live, where they might be wandering, and whom to contact should they be spotted.

Carr and the other researchers said the Silver Alert potentially could disempower members of the elderly population by putting them under “surveillance.” It creates a problem of safety versus privacy, care versus control.

Dunlap said the word “surveillance” does not accurately describe how a Silver Alert works. He said that no one’s civil rights are compromised by a missing-person search.

In the article, the researchers say the privacy issues matter less during an Amber Alert because, for a child, “safety is more important than their privacy ... The balance between safety and privacy is a much more complicated issue for older adults than children because, although recognized as a controversial issue, adults have the right (to) become missing by choice.”

Dunlap countered that the missing person is not the only person who needs to be considered during a Silver Alert.

“This is also about the family. It’s not just solely about the individual,” he said.

Dunlap added that his own family had to deal with issues of care and dignity when his father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tamara McBride, the chief of public affairs for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, said she thought the program was effective and touted its success rate.

Ohio’s Silver Alert program began on June 20, 2008. Since then, there have been 210 alerts, 184 people safely recovered, 10 people found deceased and seven still missing.

“The number of safe recoveries totally outweigh those who haven’t been found and those who were deceased when they were found,” McBride said.

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/05/17/news/nh2502476.txt