Adult Protective Services LA Found Initiative - Project Lifesaver Pilot

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

With the older adult population estimated to double by the year 2030, and 1 in 59 individuals diagnosed with autism, the issue of wandering among individuals with cognitive impairments (also including dementia/Alzheimer’s) poses a real problem for the residents of Los Angeles County. As a result, the County has taken a proactive approach to respond to the issue by launching the LA Found Initiative and Project Lifesaver Pilot. The need for the initiative was driven by an awareness that improved intergovernmental coordination and collaboration were necessary to address the very serious issue of wandering among the cognitively impaired. Resources such as technology were determined to be the key to prevention, as well as to increasing the odds of locating these individuals and reuniting them with their loved ones. Under the leadership of Supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, a motion to launch what was then titled the Bringing Our Loved Ones Home (BOLOH) Task Force was approved. The BOLOH Task Force, comprised of County and City Departments, Commissions and external partner organizations, explored and evaluated practices and opportunities to help reduce the number of vulnerable people who go missing and to quickly locate those that do. A report was unanimously approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in February 2018 mandating several County departments, spearheaded by WDACS, to implement its 17 recommendations. These recommendations included the implementation of the initiative, now known as LA Found, and the Project Lifesaver Pilot, which were launched in September 2018.