Bipartisan federal effort will continue safety tracking program

by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota)

For so many people, a break from routine can be stressful, especially for people living with dementia or a developmental disability, such as Down syndrome or autism. Those moments of anxiety or commotion can result in them wandering away from safety.

Forty-nine percent of children with autism have wandered from safe supervision, and 60 percent of people living with dementia will wander at least once. In Minnesota, we have seen these stories come to tragic ends.

In 2015, Hamza Elmi, a 6-year-old boy with autism wandered away from his family's home in St. Cloud. His disappearance launched a search that brought together police officers, reporters and community members. Sadly, the next morning Hamza's body was found in the Mississippi River just blocks from his home. As John Bodette of the St. Cloud Times put it at the time, “Our entire community has lost a son.”

Two years later, in 2017, the Duluth community was devastated by the loss of Mary and Ron Tarnowski, who had been married for 59 years. Decades earlier, Mary had suffered a stroke, and Ron took up responsibilities as her caregiver. But as he grew older and began to show signs of early-stage dementia, that work became harder for him to manage. One afternoon Ron and Mary drove away from their