rockin'robin
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“Scientists are not sure why dementia often leads to roaming. But there is this sobering statistic from the Alzheimer's Association: About 50 percent of people who wander will suffer serious injury or death if they are not found within 24 hours.”
NPR.org, June 29, 2009 · Three brief stories of wanderers in Maine: all elderly, all in advanced stages of dementia. One lives, one dies, one mysteriously disappears.
A woman in her mid-70s, in South Portland, gets in her car and heads north. It's April 2009; snow still on the ground. She drives five hours or so and winds up in the deep woods near Moosehead Lake. She turns onto a logging road and continues until her car gets stuck in the mud. The next day she is found by snowmobilers. She is alive, wearing one boot. With the help of local authorities, she is taken back home.
In Auburn, schoolteacher Claire Young reads to her husband, William — who is 77 and a dementia-driven wanderer — about the woman at Moosehead Lake. William is not supposed to drive without Claire in the car, but he does. One later-in-April morning he starts driving northward. He is found six days later, also in the woods. He has died of exposure.
And in May of 2008, Chuck Springer — 69 years old — walks out of his house in Belmont one morning. He hasn't been seen since. His mother, Ellie Springer, says, "Chuck used to take walks by himself. He would walk two or three miles along the road, then come home." Occasionally, he strolled into the woods. A retired trucker, Springer also loved the world of long distance hauling. The family holds out hope that Chuck was picked up by another trucker. But more than a year later, the family doesn't know if Springer is one mile away, or a thousand. He is, after all, a wanderer.
The Desire To Wander
We are all wanderers, of course, to varying degrees. And it's no surprise that when our memories begin to slip, when our days fade, when our lives become broth-thin and we walk around as living ghosts of the vibrants we once were, we start looking for a way out, an exit. Dementia-driven wandering can seem random to others, but according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, it can be the result of boredom, curiosity or just a general desire to get up and go. Caregivers tell stories of patients wanting to go home, even when they are home.
"Wandering is a behavior that happens mainly as a result of declining cognitive skills," says Beth Kallmyer, director of family and information services at the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. "The loss of memory impacts their ability to discern where they are."
Where they are in the physical world and who they are, in the metaphysical sense — for example, in their personal relationships.
In addition, other cognitive skills — judgment, problem solving — decline, Kallmyer says. And a person wanders. Sometimes into trouble.
The Mysteries of Dementia-Driven Wandering : NPR
NPR.org, June 29, 2009 · Three brief stories of wanderers in Maine: all elderly, all in advanced stages of dementia. One lives, one dies, one mysteriously disappears.
A woman in her mid-70s, in South Portland, gets in her car and heads north. It's April 2009; snow still on the ground. She drives five hours or so and winds up in the deep woods near Moosehead Lake. She turns onto a logging road and continues until her car gets stuck in the mud. The next day she is found by snowmobilers. She is alive, wearing one boot. With the help of local authorities, she is taken back home.
In Auburn, schoolteacher Claire Young reads to her husband, William — who is 77 and a dementia-driven wanderer — about the woman at Moosehead Lake. William is not supposed to drive without Claire in the car, but he does. One later-in-April morning he starts driving northward. He is found six days later, also in the woods. He has died of exposure.
And in May of 2008, Chuck Springer — 69 years old — walks out of his house in Belmont one morning. He hasn't been seen since. His mother, Ellie Springer, says, "Chuck used to take walks by himself. He would walk two or three miles along the road, then come home." Occasionally, he strolled into the woods. A retired trucker, Springer also loved the world of long distance hauling. The family holds out hope that Chuck was picked up by another trucker. But more than a year later, the family doesn't know if Springer is one mile away, or a thousand. He is, after all, a wanderer.
The Desire To Wander
We are all wanderers, of course, to varying degrees. And it's no surprise that when our memories begin to slip, when our days fade, when our lives become broth-thin and we walk around as living ghosts of the vibrants we once were, we start looking for a way out, an exit. Dementia-driven wandering can seem random to others, but according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, it can be the result of boredom, curiosity or just a general desire to get up and go. Caregivers tell stories of patients wanting to go home, even when they are home.
"Wandering is a behavior that happens mainly as a result of declining cognitive skills," says Beth Kallmyer, director of family and information services at the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago. "The loss of memory impacts their ability to discern where they are."
Where they are in the physical world and who they are, in the metaphysical sense — for example, in their personal relationships.
In addition, other cognitive skills — judgment, problem solving — decline, Kallmyer says. And a person wanders. Sometimes into trouble.
The Mysteries of Dementia-Driven Wandering : NPR