Homewood, AL - For Tanory McBee it was her grandfather: "He would kind of wander off. His mind wasn't set right."

For Bill Hill it was his mother: "My mother had alzheimer's.">

And for Barbara Pilato, it was her grandfather: "We knew he was missing and we had no idea where he was."

It's estimated that 5.3 million people have Alzheimer's whichis the leading cause of dementia. It's the sixth leading cause of death for the elderly- with a new case being diagnosed every 70 seconds. With every case, there's a chance the patient may wander off. Some other states have started Silver Alert programs- very similar to the Amber Alert but for adults instead of children.

"It should be fairly easy to implement with the law enforcement system we have in place," says Bill Voigt with Jefferson County Senior Services. Some patients are found quickly. "You also hear some very tragic stories of the seniors who get on a freeway, get hit or get in trouble out there and that's sad when that happens."

A Silver Alert program could prevent some of those tragedies.

"We take care of people halfway sometimes, don't we. If we're going to take care of them halfway, we need to take care of them 100%," says William Andrews.

 Email To Friend