[Lea N]

Originally Posted by MartinSE

A better solution? "People have some common sense".

Okay, I will bite.

Would you care to explain how we get from (many/most) people don't have any common sense to everyone (most/many/some/a few) has common sense and uses it.

And how we do that in the current population and society. In my case, a solution that requires educating some number of generations will do me no good. If you can't say how, then it is not a solution, it's a wish or desire. It would be nice, the world would be a seriously better place. But, I don't see it as a "solution".

"Read up on...",

I too have memory issues (difficulty forming new long term memories), so I have "read up" (ahem) a lot on most (all?) forms of dementia.

There is a lot of turn over in many industries, so?

My solution was/is:

Florida does not require licensing for "care givers". With the dominant population of people with dementia or other cognitive difficulties being "older" and Florida having a fairly large population of seniors, not regulating who is taking care of those that are least able to protect themselves is not the best that Florida could do to protect its residents from the horde of scammers. Seniors are the most common target of scams.

If I get to the point where I need a care giver, I do not want my kids to have to try and figure out who they can trust. I would much rather have them be able to look up the license of any individual they are considering and KNOW they are who they say they are and they are certified and trained. Not perfect but better than anyone can print a business card and call themselves a "Care giver".

Given Florida passes legislation to require "care givers" to be licensed and have standardized IDs for both the care givers and the people with dementia they are providing care for. That way there is no need for "common sense" or guessing.

If a person is yelling and screaming that they are being kidnapped, they should be taken seriously. It might be real, it might not.

But, I would rather briefly inconvenience 20, 100, or even 1,000 people and just have the caregiver display a card with their photo and the photo of the person they are taking care of, than to not catch one wacko kidnapping someones parent or grand parent.

The Alzheimer's Association used to have what they called Safe Return Bracelets. The bracelets were worn by the person who had Alzheimer's and also by their caregiver. I took care of my father. We both wore one. I don't remember exactly what each bracelet said but it identified him as a person with Alzheimer's or a memory disorder and me as his caregiver. If we were out together and something happened to me (a car accident for example) and EMT's or the police were involved the bracelets could explain the situation to them. They would know better what they were dealing with. The Alzheimer's Association had our records on file and their phone number was on the bracelets. If I was out with my father and "lost" him I could quickly contact the police department and also the Alzheimer's Association. At that time (over 15 years ago) 90-something percent of Alzheimer's patients who wondered away and were wearing a Safe Return Bracelet were safely returned to their family. Unfortunately the program has been discontinued. I don't know when or why it stopped, it was after my father passed away.