The House Finance Committee advanced a bill on Monday that would create a statewide alert system for missing kūpuna with cognitive impairments or developmental disabilities.
House Bill 1774 would create the Silver Alert Program within the state Department of Law Enforcement, which will be in charge of locating missing people 45 years or older.
Hawaiʻi is one of several states that doesn't have a Silver Alert Program. Much like the AMBER Alert system for locating abducted children, this program would do the same for older adults with cognitive impairments like dementia or behavior disorders.
Other states have implemented the program under agencies like the Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol and others. The alert is then displayed on electronic highway signs and broadcast on radio and television.
Although broadcast systems are encouraged, according to the language of the bill, they are not required due to privacy protection of a missing person's health condition.
The measure garnered 48 pages of written testimony, mostly in support.
ʻEwa Beach resident Patricia Arde said in written testimony that her 86-year-old father, Frank Pangelinan, has been missing for nine months.
Although he was not diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's disease, Arde wrote he "was starting to exhibit signs of memory loss, most often while driving and not remembering street names and forgetting once familiar directions."
She said finding her father, who was last seen at the Kapolei Costco, has been challenging due to the timeline of getting surveillance footage from where her father was last seen.
"Our family is crushed by dad's disappearance, and it is difficult for us to get through each day not knowing what happened to him or where he might be," Arde wrote.
In 2020, there were 29,000 people aged 65 or older living with Alzheimer's disease in Hawaiʻi, according to figures from the Alzheimer's Association. That number is expected to increase by 20% in the future.
And nearly 7% of people 45 years or older have subjective cognitive decline or dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
The Department of Law Enforcement also supported the bill. It requested lawmakers appropriate $250,000 to start the program.
The measure now needs to go to the full House. The bill will cross over to the Senate if approved for further consideration.
