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A local task force will call Tuesday for a sweeping overhaul in the way the medical and legal systems in Milwaukee deal with vulnerable older adults who exhibit challenging and sometimes aggressive behavior caused by Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

In a report titled "Handcuffed," the group paints a grim picture of some patients who suffer in the wake of outmoded laws and practices. It also details how hospitals, nursing homes and police cope with caseloads that will only increase in time as the population ages and Alzheimer's disease becomes more prevalent.

"This is the Greatest Generation, they have survived the Depression, fought World War II, and here is what we give them. It's a crying shame that we can't do better by our older adults," said Tom Hlavacek, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association of Southeastern Wisconsin.

The Alzheimer's Challenging Behaviors Task Force was created by Hlavacek after the March 2010 death of Richard Petersen.

Petersen, 85, had late stage dementia, exhibited aggressive behavior and was placed under what is known as emergency detention under Chapter 51. Petersen spent the last weeks of his life being shuttled between a senior care facility, three hospitals and the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division.

Among the report's recommendations:

• Find alternatives to Chapter 51, a legal statute under which Alzheimer's patients exhibiting such symptoms as aggression, agitation and confusion can be taken into custody by police. The report called the use of Chapter 51 "inappropriate, dangerous."

• Create a system to adequately track the number of Chapter 51 petitions related to Alzheimer's and other dementia illnesses, as well as the facilities that call for emergency detention.

• Establish a network of Alzheimer's care centers as well as "mobile, triage teams" to deal with some of the more difficult patients. Currently, the only facility available for crisis treatment in Milwaukee County is the Milwaukee Mental Health Complex.

• Boost training for family members, nursing home staff and emergency responders, including police, in an effort to better care for Alzheimer's patients while also paying particular attention to pain management.

Among the report's starkest findings was that in the first six months of 2010, Milwaukee police received 386 calls from city nursing homes. Not all the calls were related to residents. Fourteen of the calls resulted in Milwaukee police initiating emergency detentions.

The report also laid out how use of Chapter 51 is symptomatic of a broken system, often leading to treatment that includes "the involuntary administration of psychotropic drugs to reduce agitation and aggression and produce a state of sedation."

"Using Chapter 51 as a vehicle to deal with challenging behaviors in persons with dementia has been found to lead to transfer trauma, medical complications, exacerbated behaviors and even death," the report said.

The report also detailed a single day's snapshot of Alzheimer's and dementia in the state.

On April 30, 2010, some 15,264 people diagnosed with dementia were living in nursing homes in Wisconsin. Of those, 4,839, or 32%, had exhibited an incident of disruptive behavior within the previous week.

An estimated 110,000 people, including 16,800 in Milwaukee County and 8,000 in Waukesha County, have Alzheimer's disease.

Hlavacek said he hopes the report can generate improvement in the delivery of care.

"We've got a broken system, and a big part of it is because we don't value older adults," he said. "So it shouldn't be surprising if you look at the care and treatment they receive in any one of these places, in the community, hospitals, emergency rooms, behavior health facilities, public and private psychiatric hospitals."

The task force included more than 100 members who represented local police, nursing homes, hospitals, foundations and government. Financial support was provided by the Helen Bader Foundation, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Faye McBeath Foundation.

Kathleen Pritchard, president and CEO of the Planning Council for Health and Human Services Inc., which helped oversee the task force, said there was general agreement that the current system is flawed.

"It doesn't play well for the individual, for the family, for the nursing home, for the police and for the behavior health complex," she said. "Everyone seems unhappy with the system. No one was defending the way it works."