Creating a Tribal Elder Safety Net to Address Wandering

The International Association for Indigenous Aging (IA2) proposes continuation and expansion of the project Creating a Tribal Elder Safety Net to Address Wandering (hereinafter the Tribal Elder Safety Net Project) through expanding this community-led approach to additional tribal communities via learning communities and updated toolkits. IA2 will invite two to three American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian (AI/AN/NH) communities per year to build their safety net to: 1) prevent wandering among tribal elders, including AI/AN/NH people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia (ADRD); 2) re-contextualize the existing toolkit for AI/AN/NH people nationwide; and 3) continue a robust wandering search and rescue support strategy for AI/AN/NH people nationwide. This work will build on the first-of-its-kind system established with IA2 and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (PLPT) to establish a community-led environmental scan within minutes of someone reported missing. Among elders with ADRD, wandering is more likely and can quickly become fatal. There is a 50% survival rate for an elder wanderer after 24 hours. Locating elder wanderers rapidly is critical to their survival and well-being. The urgency of this matter is heightened in rural, remote, cultural significant places and under-resourced areas. Emergency responders and community members frequently do not have access to specialized teams or training to support elders who may wander. As the demographic ages and federal programs such as the Older Americans Act Title VI Native Americans program increasingly focus on supporting elders with dementia, it is critical to consider addressing wandering as important to supporting AI/AN/NH communities.