BILL NUMBER: SJR 4	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senators Correa and Alquist
   (Coauthors: Senators DeSaulnier and Maldonado)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Beall, Galgiani, Huffman, Portantino,
Salas, Smyth, and Torres)

                        MARCH 23, 2009

   Relative to Alzheimer's disease.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SJR 4, as introduced, Correa. Alzheimer's Silver Alert program.
   This measure would urge the President and Congress of the United
States to act to establish a federally controlled Alzheimer's Silver
Alert program to locate missing persons with dementia and establish a
federal grant program to aid states in establishing local Silver
Alert programs.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, At least 5.2 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's
disease, a progressive and fatal brain disease that causes loss of
memory and verbal, sensory, and other cognitive functions; and
   WHEREAS, Sixty percent of patients with Alzheimer's disease will
wander away from home and only 4 percent of those will be able to
find their way back unassisted; and
   WHEREAS, Half of seniors and others with dementia who wander away
from home, on foot or in a car, sustain injury if not found within 24
hours; and
   WHEREAS, The senior population has been steadily growing and the
aging of the baby boomer generation will likely increase the number
of persons suffering from dementia, thereby increasing the number of
persons injured or killed while wandering; and
   WHEREAS, A new type of missing persons program, know as Silver
Alert, has been developed and adopted by several states and has
resulted in the safe return of a majority of persons with dementia
reported missing; and
   WHEREAS, Legislators from other states are discussing proposals
for Silver Alert programs for introduction in 2009; and
   WHEREAS, A nationally coordinated program, similar to the Amber
Alert program for missing children, could promote best practices,
based on ideas and experiences of existing states' Silver Alert
programs, and spread those best practices to other states, resulting
in a national program incorporating the media and law enforcement;
now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and
Congress of the United States to act to establish a federally
controlled Alzheimer's Silver Alert program to locate missing persons
with dementia and establish a federal grant program to aid states in
establishing local Silver Alert programs; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of
the Senate, and each Senator and Representative from California in
the Congress of the United States.