Create Missing Senior Citizen Information Clearinghouse within Department of Public Safety
State Representatives Arthur J. O’Neill Tuesday testified in favor of a bill that would establish a ‘Silver Alert System’ to help locate missing senior citizens.
The measure (Senate Bill 451), which would establish a Missing Senior Citizen Information Clearinghouse or ‘Silver Alert System’ within the state Department of Public Safety to help find senior citizens who have gone missing, was considered at a public hearing Tuesday before the state legislature’s Select Committee on Aging.
The Silver Alert legislation was suggested by Joseph Stango, one of Representative O’Neill’s Southbury constituents. Mr. Stango also advocated for the enactment of the ‘Money follows the Person law,’ which Representative O’Neill authored in response to a federal pilot program. The law enables people who need long-term health care to receive it at home rather than at nursing homes.
“If the Money Follows the Person Law is as successful as we hope it will be, hundreds of seniors who are currently living in nursing homes will be able to return to their communities where they can live independently,” said Representative O’Neill, R-69th District. “It’s imperative that they be afforded adequate protection after they return to their home towns and resume life on their own.”
“Establishing a Silver Alert System in Connecticut is especially important to me because I represent Southbury, where the senior population is the highest in the state,” Representative O’Neill said.
