Orange Park police launch 'Take Me Home Program' to better protect children, adults with disabilities

ORANGE PARK 2019--ORANGE PARK -- Minutes really do seem like hours of agony when a loved one is missing -- especially a child or adult with disabilities who either can't speak or won't speak because they're disoriented and frightened.

Orange Park police recently launched a new program intended to help officers find and safely return home people with disabilities as quickly as possible when they wander away from their families or caregivers.

The department is the only law enforcement agency in Northeast Florida to implement the Take Me Home Program.

The free program is designed to protect children and as adults with special needs such as autism, Down syndrome or Alzheimer's and other dementia disorders who go missing and are unable to communicate who they are and where they live.

Orange Park is the most recent among about 700 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada to implement the program created by Lt. Jimmy Donohoe of the Pensacola Police Department in 2004 and is updating it. Donohoe is respected as an expert in how police can help people with disabilities that render them non-verbal or too confused or too frightened to communicate with officers and other first responders.

Police Chief Gary Goble said Officer Samantha Frehulfer brought the program with her from the Pensacola where she had worked with Donohoe on it.

So far, about a dozen people have signed up for the program since Orange Park police launched it March 20, said Sgt. Cody Monroe, a department spokesman.

Nearly 9,000 people live in Orange Park. The program is needed, Goble said because of the population dynamic.

In particular, Orange Park has several businesses serving people with developmental disabilities. The town also includes many elderly residents and senior citizens who can benefit from the program. The issue is not isolated or unique to the town, but "we felt it was an area that we have the means and ability to improve by implementing the program in order to better serve our community, Goble said.

"I estimate this program would have been beneficial in well over a dozen or more cases in the past two to three years, although I cannot confirm an exact number at this time," Goble said. Although the department successfully found all the people in those cases, he said they believe the Take Me Home Program will make finding lost people with disabilities in the future much more efficient.

"If we foster that positive relationship with the family prior to an incident happening, it can help us work that much more cohesively and effectively to bring the situation to a positive resolution," he said.

Goble noted for a police department to be truly successful there needs to be a good partnership with those in the community. This program will help do that, he said.

"We believe that this program will foster positive relationships between us the police, and the families of those that may be at more risk of either going missing or becoming victimized," Goble said.

HOW IT WORKS

Because it's just getting underway, the program currently is limited to residents within the Orange Park town limits, or those who frequent the municipality because a family member lives or works there.

The program is a database offered, managed and maintained by Orange Park police. It is only accessible to law enforcement via the police department.

Frehulfer said when someone enrolls in the program, police get their basic information, a current digital photograph, family emergency contact information and other brief information that might help police if they encounter them.

For example, she said, if the missing person likes trains, or previously has been found wandering in certain stores, that information can give police an idea where to look for them. If the individual has a certain trigger -- such as loud noises, loud voices, bright lights or crowds -- that information can help officers better interact with them when they find them.

"When officers are dispatched to this type of incident, they will instantly have this helpful information and a photograph to help the in their search," Frehulfer said.

If a caregiver alerts police their loved one has wandered away, officers will have the immediate ability to distribute a photo and other pertinent information to law enforcement and other first responders. That will save precious minutes in launching the search.

In addition, if police find someone wandering the town who's confused, disoriented and unable to say who they are or where they live, officers can check the database to see if they are enrolled in the program, Frehulfer said.

Monroe said Orange Park police have worked on the Take Me Home Program with Building Abilities for Special Children and Adults Inc. (BASCA) with a goal of collaboratively improving the safety of people with disabilities.

BASCA, a nonprofit serving Clay County residents with disabilities, also has provided special training to all the town police officers about how to improve their response to individuals with mental health disabilities.

SIGNIFICANT NEED

Donohoe knows all too well the terror a parent endures when an autistic child vanishes and is unable to tell first responders his name, where he lives or how to contact his loved ones. His adult son has autism, is non-verbal and although 32 years old, functions on the level of young child.

"My son had been missing for some time at one point. It's really heart-wrenching for the loved ones," Donohoe said.

As a career police veteran, Donohoe also understands what it's like to be a first responder searching for a child or adult with disabilities.

He said he came up with idea for the program came after he met with a group of parents with autistic children.

"After I left that meeting, I felt inadequate for the number of those individuals that we wouldn't be able to talk with. That meeting sparked it, where those parents were pretty adamant that something else had to be done to help their loved one," said Donohoe, who worked with SmartCOP -- a Pensacola company that develops public safety software, to create the program.

Donohoe said they provide the program free to law enforcement agencies and other first responder agencies. In Pensacola alone for the first 10 years, they were averaging about one call-out every six months in which they used the program in the search for a missing person with autism or Alzheimer's, he said.

"I myself recovered a man with Alzheimer's on the street who didn't have a clue where he was or where he was going," Donohoe said. The man had been gone for about three hours before his caregiver called police. The victim was severely dehydrated and couldn't tell officers his name or where he lived.

"He did recall they called him 'Skip.' There is a search mode for a name in the program and I was able to find him. He was two blocks away from home but didn't have a clue," said Donohoe, noting police first were alerted when a passerby saw the man just wandering and looked disoriented and lost. His caregiver had been taking a nap and didn't realize the man had gone outside, Donohoe said.

About six in 10 people with dementia will wander. Anyone who has memory problems and is able to walk is at risk for wandering. Even in the early stages of dementia, a person can become disoriented or confused for a period of time, said the Alzheimer's Association.

Many children with autism also will wander. Researchers using parent surveys found that nearly half of children will attempt to wander or bolt from a safe, supervised place, according to a study published last year in the journal Pediatrics.

PROGRAM WELCOMED

The bottom line, Orange Park police said, is that they want to avoid a tragedy. Too often nationwide over the past five years, police interactions with people with mental health issues or other disabilities have ended in injury or death.

"We believe that with this program -- paired with continued training in dealing with individuals with mental health disorders -- our agency will be the example to which others may follow," Goble said.

Some residents including several parents of autistic children, as well as relatives of Alzheimer's or other dementia patients have praised police for being proactive in numerous social media posts about the program.

One mother wrote: "This is wonderful. I am going to sign my special needs son up for this."

Donohoe said he hopes to have an updated version of the program available in about a month.

"I'm happy Orange Park picked up the program. I hope that if it helps just one person in the community, it was worth every minute of all the time we put into it," he said.

Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075

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