Dealing with dementia: First responders need to 'slow down,' ask questions, group says
Karen Garner has been withdrawn, depressed and afraid to leave the house since she was forcibly arrested by Loveland police last June, her attorney said.
Garner, 73, had walked out of Walmart without paying for $13.88 in merchandise. Video footage from the store shows Garner being stopped by an employee and going back inside, where she attempted to pay for the items but was asked to return them and leave the store, her attorney Sarah Schielke said.
When contacted while walking home by Loveland police officer Austin Hopp, Garner appears to be confused, according to Schielke. Hopp's body camera footage shows that as she turns to walk away, Hopp twists her arm behind her back and forces her to the ground.
Now Schielke is representing Garner and her family in a federal civil rights lawsuit against Loveland police officers alleging excessive force was used, the Americans with Disabilities Act was violated and that the Loveland Police Department failed to train officers on using force on "disabled unarmed citizens," according to a news release.
"Our mother was forever changed by this event," Garner's family said in a written statement Tuesday. "Once fiercely independent, happy, carefree and a great lover of the outdoors, she is now fearful, distrusting, reclusive. Sad. Look at what they did to her. It is no wonder why."
Garner has dementia and sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to verbally communicate and understand others, Schielke has said. She didn't understand why Hopp was stopping her, she was just "going home" — a phrase she repeated dozens of times while officers attempted to ask her questions.
More: Loveland police say they didn't know officers injured an elderly woman. Video shows otherwise.
“My sense is she didn’t understand that this had anything to do with her,” Alzheimer’s Association Colorado chapter spokesperson Jim Herlihy said. “She was just on her way home.”
Garner’s behavior throughout her arrest showed “classic signs” of someone with dementia, Herlihy said, and knowing how to communicate with people living with dementia can help first responders safely handle those situations.
“When they were asking her questions, she did not respond,” Herlihy said. “... I think that is really more of a classic sign of Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia when the individual doesn’t understand directions or commands, particularly when they feel threatened.”
The officer approaching Garner with lights and siren on could have caused her to feel threatened and confused, Herlihy said.
“It appeared she became disoriented,” Herlihy said. “... The sad part of this is that this woman really didn’t understand what was happening to her."
The Alzheimer's Association offers free training for first responders — law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs and others — on how to identify and handle situations involving someone with dementia. The online training covers six topics: Shoplifting, wandering, driving, disaster response, abuse and neglect, and a briefing section with general tips.
Herlihy said the organization reached out to Loveland police immediately after the body camera footage was released to the public in mid-April to offer their training resources, and the agency accepted.
Loveland police spokesperson Tom Hacker said the agency has made the online training "a required part of a larger, comprehensive mental health training program." Hacker did not respond to a question asking if the agency has required training on this subject prior to this incident.
Basic police training in Colorado includes a course on familiarizing new officers with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as a course on interacting with people who have disabilities.
More: DA launches criminal investigation of Loveland police officers in arrest of disabled woman
Herlihy said it's important to recognize police officers are trained to go into every situation as if it could be potentially dangerous, but when the officer saw Garner was not armed — holding just a cellphone, credit card and wildflowers she had picked on her walk — he should have reassessed the situation.
“This one did not appear to be a crisis situation,” Herlihy said.
The Alzheimer's Association estimates about 76,000 people living in Colorado with dementia, and about half of those people have not been diagnosed, Herlihy said, making it likely law enforcement officers will come in contact with someone who has dementia at least a few times per month.
The training offered for first responders helps those in the field identify the "subtle signs" of someone living with dementia in a crisis situation, Herlihy said.
After Garner didn't respond to Hopp's questions, he can be heard in the video footage asking if she needed to be arrested. Herlihy said the Alzheimer's Association's training suggests officers ask questions to gauge their mental state like, "What happened at Walmart?" "Where are you going?" or "Can I call someone to help you?"
While Herlihy said he can't put himself in Garner's exact situation, he'd guess she likely didn't understand why he was talking to her or what he meant by that question.
“There really wasn’t a conversation that appeared in that video,” Herlihy said.
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The best advice for first responders in dealing with someone who has dementia: Slow the situation down, Herlihy said. When someone who has dementia feels threatened or under stress, they might react in ways that seem agitated or disobedient because they're confused.
First responders should ask questions to determine someone's state of mind, like, "What day of the week is it?" "What is your name" and "Are you lost?" Herlihy said. That can help responders determine if a person can safely walk home — like Garner was attempting to do — or if they need to be taken somewhere. If so, “that place should be a hospital instead of a jail cell.”
“If you take a person with Alzheimer’s to jail, that is probably the worst place to go,” Herlihy said. “... They don’t really understand why they’re there in the first place.”
The community, and first responders in particular, can learn from this, Herlihy said.
“This puts a spotlight on the 76,000 people living with Alzheimer’s because this kind of a situation can happen at any point,” Herlihy said.
10 early warning signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's
- Memory loss that disrupts daily life
- Challenges in planning or solving problems
- Difficulty completing familiar tasks
- Confusion with time or place
- Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
- New problems with words in speaking or writing
- Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps
- Decreased or poor judgement
- Withdrawal from work or social activities
- Changes in mood or personality
Diagnosing dementia early can help keep everyone in a community safe and get individuals the care they need, Alzheimer’s Association Colorado chapter spokesperson Jim Herlihy said.
The Alzheimer's Association offers free webinars, videos and tip sheets for people to help identify if their loved one might have dementia and, if so, how to help them and navigate the disease.
For more information, visit alz.org or call their 24/7 help line at 800-272-3900.
Sady Swanson covers public safety, criminal justice, Larimer County government and more throughout Northern Colorado. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.