OLYMPIA — An Oak Harbor lawmaker is trying again to require the Washington State Patrol to issue a special alert statewide when mentally impaired older adults go missing.
Republican Sen. Barbara Bailey has re-introduced a bill to establish a Silver Alert system that would be activated when an adult diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s is reported missing. She envisions it operating in the same way as the existing Amber Alert system.
Senate Bill 5264 is awaiting action in the Senate Health Care Committee while a similar bill is under consideration in the House.
At a hearing last week, Bailey said the tragic death of 89-year-old Ethel O’Neil of Lake Stevens inspired her to act.
She read from a story in The Daily Herald chronicling how O’Neil, who was in the early stages of dementia, went missing July 16, 2014, and was found 28 days later in her car in blackberry bushes off a private road near Lake Stevens. She’d stopped twice to ask for directions .
“It’s possible her life could have been saved,” Bailey said. “We need a Silver Alert designation in this state. Our aging population needs this.”
Patrick O’Neil, Ethel’s son, testified in the Feb. 3 hearing that while authorities contend the state’s existing missing person notification system works, it didn’t for his mother.
Washington has the “Endangered Missing Person Advisory Plan” for people believed to be in danger because of age, health or mental or physical disability.
When a person goes missing, the Washington State Patrol can issue alerts that get posted on highway reader boards and to those who’ve signed up for alerts. In the hearing, a state patrol representative said that plan is established and hoped the Legislature wouldn’t require it to be overhauled.
That didn’t please Bailey.
“I get the feeling that you don’t want to do this, that you’re objecting to it,” Bailey said to Capt. Rob Huss, government and media relations for the state patrol.
“Our EMPA provides tools to accomplish what you want to accomplish with this bill,” he responded, then added, “We can post whatever you want.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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