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Lagan Valley MP Sorcha Eastwood has asked for her views on assisted dying to be respected (Image: Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live) A Northern Irish MP has asked for her views to be respected as she is set to vote against the Private Members Bill on assisted dying when it comes before the House of Commons this week. The Alliance Party MP for Lagan Valley, Sorcha Eastwood, whose husband has been undergoing treatment for a rare form of blood cancer, took to social media to explain her decision to vote against the bill which is a conscious issue for her party. Setting out her position, Sorcha Eastwood raised concerns about the competence of the Bill and what she described as "inadequate levels of scrutiny". "I have been lobbied strongly by doctors, consultants, disability groups and thousands of people across Lagan Valley to oppose this and I will do so," she said. "On a personal level, I have huge concerns that palliative care is not adequately funded and many hospices are reliant on charity fundraising. Palliative care needs to be funded properly and staffing also needs to reflect this. "I also have concerns about the competence of the bill and how it is drafted- it is not something I could support at second reading thinking it could successfully be amended at committee stage. I think the bill is flawed and unclear and with only 5 hours of a debate, I regard this as an inadequate level of scrutiny. "I appreciate there are many views on this difficult and highly emotive issue that is literally life and death and I have given a lot of thought to it over the last months- this is not a decision I take lightly, but I respect all views on this and ask that my own view be respected too." The bill, which would allow some terminally-ill people to have medical assistance to end their lives, will be debated by MPs on Friday. For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here. Story Saved You can find this story in My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow BelfastLive Facebook Twitter Comment More On Alliance Party Politics Lagan Valley (Constituency)

Former BBC News journalist Rory Cellan-Jones said the Parkinson’s community “felt absolutely left out in the cold”, after being honoured at Buckingham Palace. The broadcaster’s former technology correspondent, 66, was formally made an OBE by the Princess Royal for his services to journalism on Wednesday. Cellan-Jones announced in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and he has since contributed to a podcast, Movers And Shakers, discussing life with the disease. Discussing the success of the podcast, which also features Jeremy Paxman, Cellan-Jones told the PA news agency: “It’s been an absolute scream. “We’ve had the most extraordinary reaction from the Parkinson’s community. “There is a community which felt absolutely left out in the cold and this award was for services to journalism, but I can’t help but think that maybe that played some part too.” Cellan-Jones said he talked to Anne about fundraising for Parkinson’s and how technology could possibly be used to monitor the disease. The journalist added: “She showed real interest in it. “Mike Tindall, whose father’s got it, is very active in fundraising – so we talked about that.” Cellan-Jones said the OBE was “very unexpected when it came”, adding that he felt “very privileged”. He said his rescue dog from Romania, named Sophie, was “making slow progress” after becoming a social media sensation with thousands of people following her recovery online. Speaking at Buckingham Palace, Cellan-Jones said several courtiers had asked after Sophie, adding: “She’s still incredibly nervous. She’s waiting at home, she wouldn’t have liked it here – a bit too busy. “She’s making slow progress, but she’s wonderful, and she’s been very important to us.” Earlier on Wednesday, broadcaster Alan Yentob, 77, was formally made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the King for services to the arts and media. The retired television executive, who was born in Stepney, London, joined the BBC as a trainee in 1968. He devised the flagship arts programme Imagine..., which he presented on, and was creative director of the broadcaster from 2004 until 2015. Yentob stepped down from the role in the wake of the collapse of the charity Kids Company, where he was chairman. The broadcaster said Charles had been “incredibly supportive” of him. Discussing Charles, Yentob told the PA news agency: “He’s been incredibly supportive, as I said to him, on many fronts, including the fact that I was the chairman of Kids Company, and he was incredibly supportive of that in the most difficult times. “And I think the way he’s come out about his illness, and the way the Princess of Wales has too, has been admirable.” Yentob said it would be “reckless” to not support the BBC, adding “it’s a place which embraces everyone”. The broadcaster added: “If you look at the figures, it’s still doing well, even though a very substantial part of its income has been removed.” Roxy Music lead guitarist Phil Manzanera, 73, was formally made an OBE by the Princess Royal for his services to music. His most well-known band, featuring singer Bryan Ferry, is famed for hits such as Love Is The Drug and More Than This – topping the singles charts once with a cover of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy. Discussing the honour, Manzanera told the PA news agency: “It’s very moving and humbling to be amongst all these people who do absolutely incredible things. “But, obviously, I am very happy to get it for services to music and music production, because I think music helps us all in our lives in terms of improving the fabric of our lives, and it’s a great support for so many people.” The musician said he discussed his upbringing in South America and central America with Anne, having grown up in Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba. Manzanera said Anne told him that her father, Prince Philip, “once flew a Viscount plane to Caracas airport”. He said his upbringing was central to his musicianship, adding: “It’s in my DNA, the rhythms of South America. “And the musicians that we’ve all come to know through the Buena Vista Social Club were the kind of music that I started playing guitar with. “It wasn’t Bert Weedon’s Play in a Day for me, it was the music of Cuba.” Actress Shobna Gulati, 58, was formally made an MBE for services to the cultural industries, Scottish professional golfer Stephen Gallacher, 50, was made an MBE and former Arup deputy chairwoman Dervilla Mitchell, 66, received a damehood for services to engineering.WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill rallied around Pete Hegseth , Trump’s Pentagon pick, on Thursday even as new details surfaced about allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. The GOP embrace of Hegseth came as another controversial Trump nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for attorney general. Gaetz said it was clear he had become a “distraction" amid pressure on the House to release an ethics report about allegations of his own sexual misconduct. An attorney for two women has said that his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman. Fresh questions over the two nominees' pasts, and their treatment of women, arose with Republicans under pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly confirm his Cabinet. At the same time, his transition has so far balked at the vetting and background checks that have traditionally been required. While few Republican senators have publicly criticized any of Trump's nominees, it became clear after Gaetz's withdrawal that many had been harboring private concerns about him. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the House, said it was a “positive move.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it was a “positive development.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Gaetz “put country first and I am pleased with his decision.” After meeting with Hegseth, though, Republicans rallied around him. “I think he’s going to be in pretty good shape,” said Wicker, who is expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress. Republican senators' careful words, and their early reluctance to publicly question Trump's picks, illustrated not only their fear of retribution from the incoming president but also some of their hopes that the confirmation process can proceed normally, with proper vetting and background checks that could potentially disqualify problematic nominees earlier. Gaetz withdrew after meeting with senators on Wednesday. Sen. Thom Tillis said Gaetz was “in a pressure cooker” when he decided to withdraw, but suggested that it would have little bearing on Trump’s other nominees. “Transactions — one at a time,” he said. As the Hegseth nomination proceeds, Republicans also appear to be betting that they won't face much backlash for publicly setting aside the allegations of sexual misconduct — especially after Trump won election after being found liable for sexual abuse last year. Hegseth held a round of private meetings alongside incoming Vice President JD Vance on Thursday in an attempt to shore up support and told reporters afterward: “The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.” A 22-page police report report made public late Wednesday offered the first detailed account of the allegations against him. A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said the incident was “fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false.” Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said. Wicker played down the allegations against Hegseth, a former Fox News host, saying that “since no charges were brought from the authorities, we only have press reports.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said after his meeting with Hegseth that he "shared with him the fact that I was saddened by the attacks that are coming his way.” Hagerty dismissed the allegations as “a he-said, she-said thing” and called it a “shame” that they were being raised at all. The senator said attention should instead be focused on the Defense Department that Hegseth would head. It's one of the most complex parts of the federal government with more than 3 million employees, including military service members and civilians. Sexual assault has been a persistent problem in the military, though Pentagon officials have been cautiously optimistic they are seeing a decline in reported sexual assaults among active-duty service members and the military academies. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, said after his meeting with Hegseth that the nominee is a strong candidate who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power – not the current administration’s woke political agenda.” Senate Republicans are under pressure to hold hearings once they take office in January and confirm nominees as soon as Trump is inaugurated, despite questions about whether Trump’s choices will be properly screened or if some, like Hegseth, have enough experience for the job. Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, who will be the top Democrat on the panel next year, said the reports on Hegseth “emphasized the need for a thorough investigation by the FBI on the background of all the nominees.” It takes a simple majority to approve Cabinet nominations, meaning that if Democrats all opposed a nominee, four Republican senators would also have to defect for any Trump choice to be defeated. Trump has made clear he’s willing to put maximum pressure on Senate Republicans to give him the nominees he wants – even suggesting at one point that they allow him to just appoint his nominees with no Senate votes. But senators insist, for now, that they are not giving up their constitutional power to have a say. “The president has the right to make the nominations that he sees fit, but the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In the case of Gaetz, he said, “I think there was advice offered rather than consent.”

The 2024 college football season was an adventure for Utah State, to say the least. There were many frustrations and hardships along the way, from the unexpected dismissal of head coach Blake Anderson less than one month prior to the start of fall camp, to the tragic death of cornerback Andre Seldon Jr., to a myriad of season-ending injuries. All of these trials and stumbling blocks mounted and were a big reason why the Aggies will not be going bowling for only the second full season since 2012. Indeed, it’s been the kind of season that weighs heavily on coaches, players and fans alike. And yet, through it all, there was one pretty big silver lining for the Aggies in ’24 and that was their coaches and players refused to throw in the towel. Don’t get me wrong, a four-win season is anything but gratifying, but a lot of teams in USU’s situation would have only won a game or two. The Aggies could have completely folded once they were eliminated from bowl contention, yet found a way to win their next two games in convincing fashion and nearly go 4-1 during their final five outings. Last Friday’s season-concluding 42-37 road loss to a good Colorado State was a blown opportunity of epic proportions, especially considering USU held a seemingly comfortable 30-13 lead entering the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the Aggies refused to quit against the Rams, despite facing a 42-30 deficit with 1:37 left in the contest. Instead, USU pieced together a nine-play, 75-yard drive to paydirt, capped off by a 2-yard pass from backup quarterback Bryson Barnes to Otto Tia with 14 seconds remaining. The Aggies then proceeded to recover the ensuing onside kick to give themselves a glimmer of hope. There were several missteps during that game and throughout the ’24 campaign, for that matter, for the Aggies, but they remained united throughout the process, interim head coach Nate Dreiling asserted during his postgame press conference. “The locker room is incredible,” Dreiling said. “The fact that this team was able to stay together is remarkable and that has little to do with me, (but) it has to do with this locker room and the senior class and them wanting to prove people wrong. I told them all, ‘they hold a special place in my heart and I’ll forever be in their debt for continuing to show up because quitting’s easy, but not one person in this locker room or building even thought about doing that.’ So, that doesn’t happen today in college football and that’s something we’ll be proud of for the rest of our lives.” It was a season full of growing pains for Dreiling, who was actually vacationing in Dublin, Ireland, in early July with his wife, Alexa, and celebrating her remission from breast cancer when he received an unexpected phone call from Utah State Athletics Director Diana Sabau. Just like that, Dreiling — who arrived in Logan this past winter as USU’s defensive coordinator — was a head coach for the first time in his career and the youngest FBS head coach at 33 years of age, to boot. It was an extremely formidable task for Dreiling, who has certainly made some mistakes along the way, but has always done a very good job of taking ownership of the program and helping to keep the locker room intact. And the native of Victoria, Kansas, has been easy to work with along the way. I, for one, have appreciated his candor and pleasant nature when answering questions during his weekly and postgame press conferences. Dreiling was put in a very difficult situation, no doubt, and I believe he’s attempted to manage the program to the best of his abilities, plus he has been personable throughout it all. I’m definitely curious how this Aggie defense would have performed had that been Dreiling’s sole focus throughout the season. USU’s defense was virtually non-existent at the tail end of the 2023 campaign and struggled mightily for the lion’s share of ’24. But the Aggies made some significant strides on that side of the ball late in the season — despite missing nine players that were starters or second-stringers to various injuries — and performed well for three quarters against a now-8-4 CSU squad. The assistant coaches on the defensive side of the ball — Bobby McMillen (inside linebackers), Ced Douglas (defensive line), Kwame Agyeman (safeties) and Jalen Ortiz (cornerback) — did an admirable job of helping some of the younger players develop, plus helped some of the veterans peak. For example, the metamorphosis of senior edge rusher Cian Slone has been fun to watch unfold. Jaden Pearson, a graduate junior linebacker who has also played at Utah, Air Force and Reedley (California) College, spoke highly of this Aggie coaching staff. “This current coaching staff ... this was the first coaching staff I’ve ever had that really made it fun in the facility in terms of like just coach-to-player relationships,” Pearson said during last Monday’s weekly press conference. “I felt like I could talk to them about anything. My previous institutions, it was a little bit more uptight, which isn’t a knock to them, that’s just how they ran their ship. But I feel like this was a lot more fun, it was a lot more loose and I felt a lot more camaraderie come these last couple of weeks. And whether they stay, whether they go, I’m just thankful that I was able to be coached by them. They’ve really helped me a lot in my player development and as a man.” Likewise, USU’s offensive coaches have done a good job. Season-ending injuries to All-American wide receiver Jalen Royals and all-conference tight end Broc Lane, coupled by an at times injury-hampered standout tailback Rahsul Faison, didn’t prevent the Aggies from ranking seventh among all FBS programs in total offense (467.7 yards per game). It was a balanced offensive attack for USU, to boot, as it finished the regular season ranked in the top 25 nationally in rushing and passing yards an outing. Cooper Bassett is a rising star as an offensive line coach, Kyle Cefalo continues to excel as a wide receivers coach and proved he could be an offensive coordinator this season, Jimmy Beal did a great job with the running backs room, tight ends coach DJ Tialavea continues to endear himself to high school recruits throughout the Beehive State and be invaluable to this program and Hayden Kingston showed some good progress in his first season as a quarterbacks coach. Nick Paremski, who has been at USU since 2021, is one of the best special teams coordinators in the country. He has done a remarkable job mentoring athletes such as punter Stephen Kotsanlee and long snapper Jacob Garcia — two guys that left an indelible mark on the program. This coaching staff, just like any — even those employed at current Top 25 teams — had their share of miscues throughout the season, but I feel like these coaches were able to traverse obstacle after obstacle and, to their credit, stay the course. And, because of that, this program is still in pretty good shape, regardless of what the future entails.Daily Post Nigeria EPL: Man City confirm new Guardiola contract Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport Sport EPL: Man City confirm new Guardiola contract Published on November 21, 2024 By Ifreke Inyang Manchester City on Thursday night, confirmed that manager Pep Guardiola has signed a contract extension with the Premier League. The champions revealed this in an official statement on their website. This means Guardiola would have spent more than one decade as City manager by the end of this new deal. Guardiola has so far won 18 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and one UEFA Champions League. City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said: “Like every City fan, I am delighted that Pep’s journey with Manchester City will continue; allowing his dedication, passion and innovative thinking to continue to shape the landscape of the game. “His hunger for improvement and success remains insatiable and the direct beneficiaries of that will continue to be our players and coaching staff, the culture of our Club, and the English game at large. “This renewal will take Pep beyond a decade of coaching Manchester City and the opportunity to continue to re-write the managerial record books.” Related Topics: EPL guardiola Don't Miss NPFL postpones Enyimba vs Sunshine Stars You may like EPL: Jason Cundy advises Maresca not to start Chelsea star against Leicester EPL: ‘He makes a difference’ – Hislop picks Chelsea star as season’s signing EPL: Maresca confirms injury blow ahead of Leicester vs Chelsea game EPL: Emmanuel Petit names Arsenal star as biggest disappointments of the season EPL: He has real quality – Petit wants Arsenal to sign 33-year-old ex-Chelsea star EPL: Man Utd identify one signing to make for Amorim Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media LtdVikings place LB Ivan Pace on injured reserve and sign LB Jamin Davis off Packers practice squadNorthwestern women blank Saint Joseph's 5-0 to win second national championship in field hockey

It’s axiomatic that the Universe is expanding. However, the rate of expansion hasn’t remained the same. It appears that the Universe is expanding more quickly now than it did in the past. Astronomers have struggled to understand this and have wondered if the apparent acceleration is due to instrument errors. The JWST has put that question to rest. American astronomer Edwin Hubble is widely credited with discovering the expansion of the Universe. But it actually stemmed from relativity equations and was pioneered by Russian scientist Alexander Freedman. Hubble’s Law bears Edwin’s name, though, and he was the one who confirmed the expansion, called Hubble’s constant, and put a more precise value to it. It measures how rapidly galaxies that aren’t gravitationally bound are moving away from one another. The movement of objects due solely to the Hubble constant is called the Hubble flow. Measuring the Hubble constant means measuring distances to far-flung objects. Astronomers use the cosmic distance ladder (CDL) to do that. However, the ladder has a problem. The first rungs on the CDL are fundamental measurements that can be observed directly. Parallax measurement is the most important fundamental measurement. But the method breaks down at great distances. Beyond that, astronomers use standard candles, things with known intrinsic brightness, like supernovae and Cepheid variables. Those objects and their relationships help astronomers measure distances to other galaxies. This has been tricky to measure, though advancing technology has made progress. Another pair of problems plagues the effort, though. The first is that different telescopes and methods produce different distance measurements. The second is that our measurements of distances and expansion don’t match up with the Standard Model of Cosmology, also known as the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. That discrepancy is called the Hubble tension. The question is, can the mismatch between the measurements and the LCDM be explained by instrument differences? That possibility has to be eliminated, and the trick is to take one large set of distance measurements from one telescope and compare them to another. New research in The Astrophysical Journal tackles the problem by comparing Hubble Space Telescope measurements with JWST measurements. It’s titled “ JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Selection of Supernova Subsample Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H 0 . ” The lead author is Adam Riess, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Thomas J. Barber Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. Riess is also a Nobel laureate, winning the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae,” according to the Nobel Institute. As of 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope gathered the most numerous sample of homogeneously measured standard candles. It measured a large number of standard candles out to about 40 Mpc or about 130 million light-years. “As of 2022, the largest collection of homogeneously measured SNe Ia is complete to D less than or equal to 40 Mpc or redshift z less than or equal to 0.01,” the authors of the research write. “It consists of 42 SNe Ia in 37 host galaxies calibrated with observations of Cepheids with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the heritage of more than 1000 orbits (a comparable number of hours) invested over the last ~20 yrs.” In this research, the astronomers used the powerful JWST to cross-check the Hubble’s work. “We cross-check the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cepheid/Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) distance ladder, which yields the most precise local H 0 (Hubble flow), against early James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) subsamples (~1/4 of the HST sample) from SH0ES and CCHP, calibrated only with NGC 4258,” the authors write. SH0ES and CCHP are different observing efforts aimed at measuring the Hubble constant. SH0ES stands for Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy, and CCHP stands for Chicago-Carnegie Hubble Program, which uses the JWST to measure the Hubble constant. “JWST has certain distinct advantages (and some disadvantages) compared to HST for measuring distances to nearby galaxies,” Riess and his co-authors write. It offers a 2.5 times higher near-infrared resolution than the HST. Despite some of its disadvantages, the JWST “is able to provide a strong cross-check of distances in the first two rungs,” the authors explain. Observations from both telescopes are closely aligned, which basically minimizes instrument error as the cause of the discrepancy between observations and the Lambda CDM model. “While it will still take multiple years for the JWST sample of SN hosts to be as large as the HST sample, we show that the current JWST measurements have already ruled out systematic biases from the first rungs of the distance ladder at a much smaller level than the Hubble tension,” the authors write. This research covered about one-third of the Hubble’s data set, with the known distance to a galaxy called NGC 4258 serving as a reference point. Even though the data set was small, Riess and his co-researchers achieved impressively precise results. They showed that the measurement differences were less than 2%. That’s much less than the 8% to 9% in the Hubble tension discrepancy. That means that our Lamda CDM model is missing something. The standard model yields an expansion rate of about 67 to 68 kilometres per second per megaparsec. Telescope observations yield a slightly higher rate: between 70 and 76 kilometres per second per megaparsec. This work shows that the discrepancy can’t be due to the different telescopes and methods. “The discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the predictions of the standard model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete. With two NASA flagship telescopes now confirming each other’s findings, we must take this [Hubble tension] problem very seriously—it’s a challenge but also an incredible opportunity to learn more about our universe,” said lead author Riess. What could be missing from the Lambda CDM model? Marc Kamionkowski is a Johns Hopkins cosmologist who helped calculate the Hubble constant and recently developed a possible new explanation for the tension. Though not part of this research, he commented on it in a press release. “One possible explanation for the Hubble tension would be if there was something missing in our understanding of the early universe, such as a new component of matter—early dark energy—that gave the universe an unexpected kick after the big bang,” said Kamionkowski. “And there are other ideas, like funny dark matter properties, exotic particles, changing electron mass, or primordial magnetic fields that may do the trick. Theorists have license to get pretty creative.” The door is open, theorists just have to walk in.AP Trending SummaryBrief at 6:29 p.m. EST

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CDC chief urges focus on health threats as agency confronts political changesHoliday stress can lead Alzheimer’s patients and those with dementia to go missingShelia Poole | (TNS) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ATLANTA — Holidays are a time for families and friends to gather, but for older people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, it can cause so much stress and confusion that they could be in danger of what experts calls wandering. Related Articles Health | Health officials say Louisiana patient is first severe bird flu case in US Health | What’s behind rising autism rates: A broader definition of autism and better screening Health | Most US teens are abstaining from drinking, smoking and marijuana, survey says Health | An Alabama woman is doing well after the latest experimental pig kidney transplant Health | Walking in a rhythmic wonderland with holiday songs that could help save lives “I would say around the holiday time is the biggest challenge for people with dementia,” said Kim Franklin, senior manager of programs and services at the Georgia chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. “Schedules are changing, people are traveling, families are coming together and friends are coming over. There’s a lot of chaos going on and that can cause a person to wander. They want to get away. It’s hard for them to process what’s happening.” The Alzheimer’s Association reports 72% of dementia patients who wander are found alive by the next day. Alerting 911 as soon as the person goes missing is critical. The odds of survival decrease as more time passes. Angel Alonso, president of Georgia Emergency Search and Recovery based in Gwinnett County, said the vast majority — between 60% and 70% — of the 30 to 40 calls the nonprofit received last year involved people with the disease. The GESAR is a volunteer-driven organization that works with law enforcement to find people who have gone missing, including children, people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and people lost during major disasters. “We get so many Alzheimer’s calls,” said Vice President John Clark, who is also volunteer instructor with the Georgia Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. For caregivers and loved ones, a relative who goes missing is devastating. Two of Clark’s grandparents had dementia, so he gravitated to search and rescue to help other families and caregivers keep their loved ones safe. He’s consulted with police departments across metro Atlanta on the best ways to find people with Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias can cause people to lose their ability to recognize people and places that are familiar. According to the Alzheimer’s Association there are often warning signs that a person might wander. Six in 10 people with dementia will wander during the course of the disease. That includes people returning from a regular walk or drive later than usual. Or they may talk about fulfilling former obligations, such as going to work or talk about going home even when they’re at home. Sometimes they become restless and pace or make repetitive movements. Clark recounted one call for help when a family reported a missing relative, but they insisted she couldn’t have gone far because of a bad knee that limited her to walking no further than the mailbox. Searchers found the missing woman 7 miles from home. Even those who have never shown an interest in wandering might start without warning. Dan Goerke is fortunate. His late wife, Diane, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2012, once went missing from the car of a caregiver. The caregiver had stopped for an errand. Diane had waited alone in cars as people ran errands before. But this time, when the caregiver returned, Diane was gone but her seat belt was still fastened. “It was like she disappeared into thin air,” said Goerke, who said he doesn’t blame the caregiver. Fortunately, she was found uninjured and nearby a short time later that same day. Goerke said it’s hard for caregivers to always be on guard for wandering. “We have so many things to juggle that’s not necessarily at the top of our minds. We have to manage medications, take them to doctor’s appointments, cook meals and taking care of things day to day,” he said. Clark said when searching for someone with dementia, one of the keys is to know what the person was like before their diagnosis. Often their long-term memories are still strong. They once found a woman who walked out of her home and went to where she used to shop and to her old job, although it had closed. Recently, GESAR unveiled a new tool to search for missing people: Maverick. An 8-month-old chocolate Labrador retriever, Maverick is in training to be part of the GESAR search and research team that will track missing people, including wandering dementia patients in metro Atlanta. In cases involving children and people with dementia, a dog’s personality can also be an asset. Labs like Maverick are friendly and affectionate, not imposing or threatening like some other breeds — and less likely to scare the person who is lost. Canines can be used in searches in both rural and urban areas. “He’s an asset,” said Maverick’s handler, Carmen Alonso. “His nose can pick up odors and track where a person has been that we might not think to go that direction.” At the Cobb County Police Department, Public Information Officer Sgt. Eric Smith said if dogs are needed to search for a wanderer they call the sheriff’s department, which has bloodhounds. “They’re not apprehension dogs so there’s little or no likelihood of a bite,” he said. Technology can also help, Smith said. Searchers can use drones and families can install technology on a person’s car to help locate it or use other kinds of trackable devices including on their phone. “We get so many Alzheimer’s calls,” said Clark, who is also a volunteer instructor with the Georgia Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Most cases they’ve worked on have had favorable results, according to the Georgia Emergency Search and Recovery organization. No two searches are the same, said Sgt. Jeremy Blake of the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. “When responding to calls for a missing person, the response is different than that of a fleeing suspect,” he wrote in an email. “The K-9s that are used to track missing persons are not trained in the apprehension of suspects. ... Often times, if the K-9 cannot locate the missing person, they can provide officers with a more accurate direction of travel than they may previously had.” Nearly 7 million U.S. residents age 65 and older were living with Alzheimer’s according to the most recent Facts & Figures report . Of those, more than 188,000 Georgians ages 65 and older also have been diagnosed with the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association Georgia Chapter. There is a better chance of being found in urban environments because of a higher probability of a “good Samaritan” stepping in. Wanderers may give no forewarning. Often those with memory issues wander away during activities they’ve done safely in the past, such as shopping or sitting on a front porch. Some people who still drive can become disoriented and drive for miles away from home. According to the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, on average, half the calls for missing persons involve the elderly or someone with disabilities. Call 911 as soon as possible. Have a photograph available for first responders and an article of clothing to provide a scent for search dogs. Sharing what the missing person liked to do in prior years can be a key: Did they have a job they went to every day? Did they like to fish or go to a certain spot? Searchers will need to know the last time the person was seen to help determine how far a person might have wandered. (Source: Alzheimer’s Association and Cobb County Police Department.) ©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.