In Mobile County, Alabama, seniors make up 15.8 percent of the population, approximately 12 percent of those in the Medicare population in Mobile County had Alzheimer's disease in 2012, and the numbers are on the rise. In Mobile, the county’s largest city, there are seven well-equipped memory care facilities to care for Alzheimer’s patients. Many of these facilities also provide assisted living services.
In order to better care for Mobile County residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, a local non-profit organization called Gulf Coast Dementia Services provides education and training throughout the county. It also offers helpful services such as case management, health counseling, care advocacy, dementia care services, and a free dementia support group for caregivers.
Project Lifesaver, a program run by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, provides a special transmitter device to memory care patients that can be worn on the wrist or ankle. This device enables law enforcement to quickly locate a patient in trouble.