A simple tool can ensure that people with schizophrenia receive proper care in an emergency room or help family members find a loved one who has stopped taking medication and is experiencing behavioral problems in public. The tool is a MedicAlert® medallion.

Worn as a bracelet or necklace, the MedicAlert® medallion features the Aesculapian staff – the international symbol of medicine – on its front. On its back, the medallion identifies the wearer's medical condition and gives the toll-free number of the MedicAlert® Foundation's 24-hour data bank where operators stand ready to provide vital facts to emergency personnel anywhere in the world.

Law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical workers routinely receive training about MedicAlert® medallions, and tens of thousands of people with conditions ranging from heart disease to diabetes to asthma wear them. Yet fewer than 900 people with schizophrenia are currently enrolled.

"I think it would be very useful if more people with schizophrenia used the medallions," says Stacie Larson, president of the Olympia, WA chapter of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Diana Hunt, RN, a medical resource specialist for MedicAlert®, agrees. "Sometimes following a stressful situation or an accident, a person with schizophrenia will become incoherent, or even combative and abusive," she says.

Since schizophrenia is not easily recognized, emergency responders or police may incorrectly assume that the person is reacting to injuries or to alcohol or drugs – or that they are dangerous. And even if they are somehow able to recognize the schizophrenia, they will usually have no idea what medications the patient is on – or if medications they might administer could cause serious, or fatal, reactions.

One toll-free call to MedicAlert® gives emergency responders all that information, along with the name and phone numbers of the patient, their physician, and a family member or friend who can take them home again.

Larson enrolled her 38-year-old son because of her concern about one particular side effect of his schizophrenia – reduced pain sensitivity.

Though common, this side effect has only recently been recognized. Not long ago, for example, her son had an attack of cellulitis, an inflammatory skin disease that most people find unbearably painful – yet he never complained. Larson was afraid that if he was in an accident and told doctors that he felt no pain, they might wrongly assume he was uninjured.

"Wearing the medallions could be important," says Mona Sajous, CSW, who has counseled people with schizophrenia and their families at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York. "If someone is admitted to the emergency room, the treatment could get going a lot quicker."

MedicAlert® necklaces and bracelets come in a variety of styles. A one-year basic membership, with stainless steel medallion, costs $35. Annual renewals are $20, and members can update medical and personal information as often as necessary at no additional cost.

MedicAlert® also has a program for people who cannot afford these fees. To qualify, send a note from your doctor or social worker stating the medical need and certifying that you are unable to pay.

Contact MedicAlert® – 1-800-432-5378