Alzheimer’s advocates want police recruits to receive dementia training

The Alzheimer’s Association will ask lawmakers to require that law enforcement recruits receive dementia specific training as they begin their careers.

More than 30 Alzheimer’s advocates will travel to Richmond to meet with state legislators next week on behalf of the 150,000 Virginians impacted by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and their 351,000 caregivers.

“Advocacy Day turns Alzheimer’s statistics into actual people who are impacted by the disease and all other dementia,” said Joshua Myers, director of government affairs, Alzheimer’s Association Virginia chapters. “It is their personal stories that will remain with legislators as they make decisions on public health policy.”

HB 2250 would require law enforcement recruits to have dementia specific training as they begin their careers after graduating from the justice academy. This requirement will help ensure that appropriate techniques are used to assist individuals displaying signs of cognitive impairment.

Specifically, HB 2250 would require training in six ways:

• respectful and effective communication techniques for communicating with individuals with dementia and their caregivers;
• techniques for addressing the behavioral symptoms of dementia, including alternatives to physical restraint;
• identifying and reporting incidents of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of individuals with dementia to adult protective services;
• protocols for contacting caregivers when an individual with dementia is found   wandering or during an emergency or crisis situation;
• local resources available for individuals with dementia;
• local and national organizations that assist police officers with locating missing and wandering individuals with dementia and returning them to their caregivers.