05/28/2026
Police are searching for Michael Garrett, a 69 year old dementia resident, who walked out of a Shaker Heights nursing home Tuesday night.
๐๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฒ๐น, ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ต๐ญ๐ญ.
What happened to Michael has a name. It is called elopement, and it is one of the most dangerous and preventable failures in nursing home care. Federal law requires facilities to assess every resident's risk of wandering and have protections in place before something like this happens.
If your loved one has dementia and lives in a nursing home, ask the facility whether an elopement risk assessment is on file and what protections are active. A locked door is not enough on its own.
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