Tragedy spurs creation of program

By Rebecca Ray

One January day, Shirley Ewins' friends arrived at her house to pick her up for their weekly Wednesday luncheon at the Saratoga Senior Center. But Ewins didn't answer the door, and she hadn't answered the phone when they called her earlier.

Ewins' body was later discovered in her bathroom and her death attributed to natural causes. The events that lead to the discovery of Ewins has shed light on the challenge of keeping track of elderly residents who live alone. A local program has been created to help these residents stay in touch with the community, especially in case of an emergency.

When Ewins' friends couldn't find her, they were concerned; Ewins, a member of the center, attended the luncheon every week. So the friends told Mary Goulart, executive director of the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council (SASCC), which oversees the center. Goulart called the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. But when officers went to Ewins' house, there were no signs of foul play, nothing looked out of place. A neighbor told them she thought that Ewins had gone somewhere with her husband.

But the problem was that Ewins wasn't married and lived alone.

A friend of Ewins' looked for a house key that Ewins had hidden in her garage, but she couldn't find it. When Goulart asked the officers to break down the door, they said they couldn't.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits emergency personnel from entering a residence, unless the situation is an emergency. The sheriff's office didn't feel as though they had enough information to consider the situation an emergency.

The next day, one of Ewins' friends found the key. When he and a sheriff's deputy entered the residence, they found Ewins dead, lying on the bathroom floor.

"I was devastated by her death, but I was even more devastated that I wasn't able to help her," Goulart said.

But Goulart, who is also a member of the county senior care commission, decided to try to make something positive from the tragedy, so she resolved to start a program to ensure the physical well-being of seniors. The program is called the Senior Health Awareness Registry Program. It is headed by SASCC, with support from the sheriff's office, the two fire stations that serve Saratoga--the Saratoga Fire District and Santa Clara County Fire Department--the city of Saratoga and KSAR TV station.

For years, mail carriers from the Saratoga branch of the post office have watched senior residents' mail and contacted the post office and sheriff's office if mail accumulated. But SASCC's new program goes a step further.

The program is open to any senior who wants others to help look out for his or her welfare, Goulart said. SASCC plans to offer participants a list of safety measures from which to choose. Some of the choices that SASCC, the sheriff's office and the fire departments are considering for the list include life lines, phone chains, neighbor watches, church-based visits, medic alerts, programs from the Council on Aging and a computer database that will aid emergency personnel in checking on participants.

The program is primarily an educational program that helps participants help themselves, by giving them the tools they need to be safer, Goulart said.

"[Tragedies] will continue to happen, but we might be able to save someone's life," Goulart said. "Good things are happening already, and the community is pulling together."

Seniors who choose to have information about them recorded on a database would fill out a form that contains emergency information. They then will give the form to the Senior Center. Volunteers at the center will enter the information into the database, which they will maintain. The center will also provide copies of the information to the sheriff's office and fire departments, which will also be hooked up to the database.

All information is confidential, said sheriff's Deputy Pete Evangel, who is putting together the computer program with Deputy Mark Ramirez. People must enter a password to access the program, which will be hooked up to seven computers--one at the Senior Center; one at each fire station; and four at the sheriff's office. The four at the sheriff's office are actually three laptops used by field supervisors and one computer that will contain the back-up system, Evangel said.

SASCC, the sheriff's office and the fire departments are deciding what emergency-related questions--which participants will have the choice of answering--to include on the form. Seniors may have the option to pre-designate up to three emergency contacts who can authorize the sheriff's office or fire departments to enter the senior's home and check on him or her.

Participants may also indicate how many vehicles are at their residences and where they are parked, how many others live with them, who has keys to their homes. They may also indicate if they have a Vial of Life and where they keep it. Other information could state if they have a Knox Box--a box attached to the house that contains a house key or garage door opener and that only the fire departments can open. Participants will be able to update their information or take their names off the database, Goulart said.

Personnel will be able to access all of the information a senior includes about him- or herself just by typing a few letters of the senior's name, Evangel said.

"I think it will be a very valuable program, certainly one that will offer peace of mind for a lot of the senior residents," Evangel said. "They can pre-designate what will happen."

The sheriff's office, SASCC and the fire departments plan to pilot the entire program at the Senior Center to work out the kinks, which will probably take at least six months, Evangel said. The sheriff's office, which will provide the software for the database, would like to have the pilot program running by March and would eventually like to expand the program to all seniors in its jurisdiction, Evangel said.

Anyone who would like to help with the program can call Goulart at the Senior Center at 408.868.1253.

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