Residents on Montreal’s North Shore may have been awoken to the sound of a phone alert early Tuesday morning.
It was the first-ever Silver Alert issued in Quebec to notify the public of a missing elderly person.
It’s the same concept as the Amber Alert for missing children. A Silver Alert is issued when a senior living with a cognitive disorder, such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia, goes missing and authorities believe there is an imminent threat to the person’s life.
Shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, the province issued an alert for a 73-year-old woman from Saint-Eustache, Que., who police said was possibly disoriented. They were worried about her health safety.
Provincial police say she was found a few hours later, at around 3:30 a.m., in Trois-Rivières, a city located between Montreal and Quebec City. The alert was lifted.
“We know that the number of people diagnosed with cognitive disorders is increasing as the population continues to age,” said Dr. Elise Levinoff, a geriatric medicine specialist, in an interview.
