Take Me Home Program created to help missing elderly make it home safely

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - If you've ever experienced it, you know the terror that comes with having an elderly loved one go missing. Now there's a new initiative designed to help.

Thousands of seniors wander away and go missing every year and too often there's a devastating ending, like Terry Barnes, who had declining mental health and disappeared when she walked away. She was found dead in Buffalo Bayou earlier this year.

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To prevent such tragic endings, the Harris County Sheriff's Office has created the Take Me Home program.

"For those individuals diagnosed with cognitive conditions, like dementia and Alzheimer's, they tend to wander. So, the more information we have the better we're able to respond to these situations," explains Sgt. Jose Rico Gomez with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

In the last few months alone, Houston has had heartbreaking headlines about seniors who have wandered away and were discovered deceased, like JoeAnn Montgomery near a pond in Cypress, dementia patient Lee Huery found floating in an apartment complex swimming pool, 75-year-old Shirley Williams dead in a park, and Josefina Montesdeoca's body found in an uncovered manhole.  

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The Harris County Sheriff's Office's new Take Me Home program is meant to help in situations just like these.

"Having more information up front. Before we go to a house and respond to these types of situations, just better prepares the officers before we get there to start looking for these individuals, especially a picture. Having a picture is key in this type of program because that way, on the way there, the deputy already has the picture up front, and can start looking," said Gomez.

Because when someone is missing, minutes matter.

So, if you have a loved one who's up in age and at risk of wandering, you're encouraged to register them with the Take Me Home program. Part of the registry is for family members to let the HCSO know where the person typically wanders off to.  

"Yes, favorite places they might visit or loved ones that live nearby," Gomez said.  

Families are also encouraged to provide some de-escalation techniques that typically work with their loved one. 

"If they're able to provide us with do's and don'ts for deescalation, things that have worked for them, even if it's food. Maybe our officer has chocolate or a teddy bear, something that will calm down that situation. We do train in de-escalation and Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, are big topics in our training," Gomez said.        

It's a free program with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and two Take Me Home stickers are also given to perhaps put at the house and on a car window to help identify someone that may be at risk of wandering away. You can register online at TakeMeHome@sheriff.hctx.net.