A new attack on nursing home crime.

Unfortunately, nursing home dents are easy targets for theft. Because nursing home placement essentially requires that a lifetime of possessions be left behind, residents have only a few belongings they can call their own, and the loss of any one of them, particularly by theft, is especially painful.

Nothing will sully the reputation of a nursing home more quickly and completely than crime, any crime, including its most common form, theft. As longterm care providers know all too well, even an isolated instance of theft can leave an indelible mark on a facility's otherwise spotless reputation.

A nursing home's best defense against a tarnished reputation is a visible commitment to crime prevention and a zero-tolerance, proactive response to crime when it does occur.

A new national Senior Crimestoppers program is designed to give LTC providers a tool to accomplish these goals -- an immediate and highly visible response to crime that also serves as a s rent. The program is the product of a partnership between Senior Crimestoppers, Crimestoppers International and the LTC management company Service Master Diversified Health Services (DHS). Senior Crimestoppers has already been launched in M Servicemaster skilled nursing facilities and will soon be implemented in all our LTC and subacute facilities in 36 states.

Participating nursing homes become charter members of Senior Crimestoppers for a stipend of @O cents per bed per month. Member facilities have round-the-clock access to an number phone bank for reporting theft of personal belongings or other crimes.

Facilities receive full organizational, orientation and training materials for residents, families and staff, with inservices available through chapters of Triad, an alliance of law enforcement agencies. Member facilities also have access to representation by Senior Crimestoppers alliance partners on an as-needed basis. Assistance includes coordination through local Crime stopper chapters, privacy in dealing with the media A and legal advice, 24 hours a day.

If a staff member, resident or family member wants to report a crime, he or she simply calls the Senior Crimestoppers 800 number anonymously. Once the crime, usually theft, is reported, Senior Crimestoppers immediately posts a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the return of the missing article. They then produce and facility a "wanted poster" with the reward information for circulation throughout the nursing home. Anyone with information about the theft can then call the number and possibly qualify for the cash reward.

Anonymity is the key to the program. No names are ever given -- callers receive an identifying code number. A caller who is entitled to receive the cash reward is told to go to a participating local bank branch drive-through window and ask for an envelope marked with the code number. The envelope contains all cash and absolutely no questions are asked. In addition, all rewards are non-taxable, as the IRS upholds the anonymity of the entire Crimestopper Program.

Senior Crimestoppers sets the reward amount, which is funded with its membership dues, and determines who the recipient will be. Receipt of the reward is usually contingent upon the return of the missing item.

The calls to the 800 since the program was launched in May have been made by administrative or supervisory staff who were notified about a problem by a resident's family or a staff member. In one instance, a jacket was reported missing by a staff member. Senior Crimestoppers issued a notice with a $250 reward, which generated a number of calls.

While the monetary value of the jacket was much lower than $250 setting the award at that amount not only elicited calls, it also let the resident and family know how seriously we were taking the loss of their possession. One day after the reward was posted, the jacket reappeared. The reward system apparently convinced the thief to return the jacket rather than risk being caught.

For a nominal monthly fee (about $3.75), residents of member facilities can also rent a lockbox to store personal items of their choosing. While nursing homes are required to provide a place of safe keeping for personal articles, that place usually amounts to a locked cabinet drawer that belongs to, and is controlled by, the nursing home. These lockboxes, on the other hand, belong to the residents. The resident decides what to put in the lockbox and access to it is limited to the resident and/or the resident's family. Charging residents a small rental fee reinforces their ownership of the box and control of its contents.

We install the lockboxes in the residents, rooms where they won't be readily visible (space permitting). Each lockbox has only three keys: the first goes to the resident or family and the second is kept in the bank. Although the third key is kept in the nursing home to be used in case the resident's key is lost, it is not for use by the facility. We tell our residents that this is their lockbox and they have complete control over what goes into and comes out of it.

This very basic concept of a safe place for personal belongings was, in fact, the idea central to the inception of Senior Crimestoppers -- the idea, in fact, of a banker who had two relatives living in nursing homes. From these humble beginnings, Senior Crimestoppers has become an alliance of nursing home residents, family members, and owner/ managers, Crime Stoppers International and its community programs, financial institutions, national support groups and the media.

Benefits Abound

We view the senior crimestoppers program as a win-win proposition. It sends a clear message to would-be thieves that we're committed to a zero-tolerance approach to crime in any form and, most important, it helps to restore trust by sending a message to residents and family members that we care enough to go the extra mile to protect what is theirs and make them feel secure in their "home."

Our facilities are receiving the program with open arm sand many have held press conferences to announce its implementation. Once Senior Crimestoppers is up and running in all our LTC facilities, we plan to propose its implementation in our assisted living facilities as well.

While we expect that most, if not all, the calls to the 800-line win be related to theft, staff, residents and family members can also use the 800-line to report other crimes, such as resident abuse. In the rare instance that this should occur, Crimestoppers program would serve as a supplement to the self-reporting and investigation already required in cases of resident abuse. A family member, for example, might use the line to make sure that the incident has been reported and, depending on the findings of our investigation, a reward could feasibly be offered for information that helps us identify the perpetrator.

There is yet another anticipated benefit. Once the program has been up and running for four or five years, the ideal outcome would be a decrease in staff turnover rates. Good employees and perspective employees would want to work in a facility that clearly cares about its residents, well-being. Recognizing this, maybe the "bad apples" will steer clear.

For more information about Senior Crimestoppers, call 1-800-529-9096 or write to Senior Crimestoppers at Commerce Square, 7th Floor, Memphis, TN. 38150.

Judy Ullery is president of the Memphis, TN division of Servicemaster Diversified Health Services, LP.