The Dukes County sheriff is perhaps best known as the Island’s jailer, but the mandate of the sheriff’s office is far broader, and includes much to benefit older adults. That’s according to Sterling Bishop, director of community outreach at Dukes County Sheriff’s Office. Programs uniquely targeted to serve the older adults of Martha’s Vineyard and their families include the Triad initiative, Project Lifesaver, and the We’ve Got Your Number program.
“The Triad program,” explains Bishop, “is a form of community policing that began in the ’80s as a way to keep members of our elder community safe from crime.”
According to the National Sheriffs’ Association, “in 1988, representatives from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) came together to attempt to define a way to help keep older adults safe from crime. The Triad model emerged from that effort. Over time, word about the Triad model spread, and communities large and small adopted the concept.”
“Locally,” explains Bishop, “the Triad program is a partnership with elderly community members, the sheriff, law enforcement agencies, and community service providers that meet to discuss and address public safety concerns of senior citizens.” He highlighted two programs undertaken by Island’s Triad program:
Project Lifesaver is a program designed to protect, and when necessary, quickly locate individuals with cognitive disorders — people who have dementia, or young people who are autistic who may be prone to wandering.
Bishop recently demonstrated for The Times the small transmitter — worn on the wrist or ankle — utilized by citizens enrolled in Project Lifesaver. The technology emits an individualized frequency signal. If an enrolled client goes missing, a caregiver notifies the local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area.
Responding emergency team members are certified through training with an understanding of cognitive conditions, giving them the necessary tools needed to respond to an elopement, and to assess and effectively manage the safe and comfortable return of a client.
The We Have Your Number program installs free-of-charge street number signs to help first responders quickly find your residence. The reflective, easy-to-see street number signs increase visibility in case of emergency.
Access to the signs are “safety-based,” according to Bishop, and not just because your house is hard for UPS to find. “The program is geared toward elderly residents in our community,” explains Bishop, “but it may also be helpful for any individual who is medically compromised and may need emergency services to locate them easily.” One definition of “medically compromised” could be individuals with mobility issues.
How does one apply for street-numbering signage?
“You can go to any Council on Aging,” according to Bishop. “You can go to the sheriff’s office, you can go to the town offices, and just put in a request. They’ll refer you to the right place. And then you go into the queue to have these things installed on your property.”
Currently helping install the signs are two college students doing six-week internships with the sheriff’s department: Andrew Lee at the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland, and Jayden Baird, a criminal justice major at Roger Williams College who is in her second summer interning with the sheriff’s office. She told The Times she loves working in the sheriff’s office: “I’m learning so much, doing outreach in the community with young people and older people, with people who have different needs.”
The interns do outreach at the Boys and Girls Club, including team-building activities and problem-solving, and basically meeting kids in the community. They wear sheriff’s uniforms with the emblem of a sheriff’s badge, so they’re helping broker and improve relations in the community for all ages.
