Vicky Rose is the coordinator for Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare's memory disorder clinic. She says COVID-19 is disrupting the routine of those who have Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD). Rose explains that people with ADRD are heavily reliant on a routine, and when it's disrupted problems can arise:
"So with that change in routine, we can, of course, expect people to maybe have more problems. Maybe they will wander outside of the home looking for that thing that they're supposed to be doing, and that's where the scent preservation comes in."
The Florida Department of Elder Affairs is partnering with Scent Evidence K9 to hand out scent preservation kits. Rose says these kits can help K9s locate lost loved ones faster.
Scent Evidence K9 founder and CEO, Paul Coley, says when there are multiple people in a home, their scents mix, making it harder for K9s to lock onto the right scent:
"I refer to it as the Pig-Pen effect. If you've seen Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown, the way the dust comes off of him, that's how human odor works. So in a home, that odor travels and can contaminate any potential scent articles."
Coley explains that even a loved one's dirty laundry can have various odors on it. He says the kits allow caregivers to collect someone's scent and isolate it for years to come.
The Florida Department of Elder Affairs says 2,000 of these scent preservation kits will go to caregivers across the state.
