Elderly Wandering: How To Stop Seniors From Wandering and Getting Lost

You can prevent elderly wandering and find lost senior citizens  with these reliable and affordable eldercare gadgets. If you are caring for someone with cognitive disabilities you know how terrifying the thought of them wandering away from home and getting lost can be. The statistics for lost elderly people are pretty grim.  A person suffering from dementia who gets lost has a very high chance of being killed or hurt if not found within 24 hours.  Prevent this from happening by making your home wander proof and your loved one easier to find if they should happen to stray away from home.

Prevent Elderly Wandering

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and preventing a senior with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia from sneaking out of the home is your first priority.  The idea is to prevent them from getting out without supervision in the first place.  There are a number of good devices for this purpose and most are very affordable.

Wander Alarms are devices that send an audible or visual alert to the caretaker in the event that the patient opens an exit door.  Some are fairly low-tech others are more sophisticated and more expensive.  A very simple device is a door alarm. It’s a banner that can be hung across a door. The banner is a big bold sign that reads, Stop! For patients with mild forms  of dementia this may be enough to remind them not to leave. If they do open the door, the banner becomes disengaged which triggers an alarm. This device is easy to use and simple to install in addition to being very affordable.

Wandering Alarms

If you live in a home with lots of other people coming and going you may not want to rig up every door otherwise bells and whistles will be going off at all hours. A more sophisticated approach is a wristband or other device worn by the patient which triggers an alarm if they get too close to the designated area.  It’s almost like an antitheft  alarm you see in stores.  Only when the device gets too close to the door does the alarm go off which means that children and other family members won’t accidentally trip the alarm. You could find this device here: Wander Prevention

Another easy way to prevent wandering is with the use of pressurized pad alarms. A bed sensor pad is placed under the mattress or a floor mat alarm is used and when someone gets out of bed or steps onto the mat,  the remote alarm will sound.  This is also a great way of preventing falls.  If you’re caring for someone that needs help getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night you don’t want them trying to go on their own and getting hurt. A more sophisticated solution is a motion detector which can alert you when you’re elderly loved one is on the move.

GPS for Finding Lost Seniors

If they should happen to bypass all your safety guards then you’ll need a way of finding them fast. Once they’re out of the house they are in grave danger and the sooner you can find in the safer they’ll be. We  recommend Securatrac for a very simple to use and highly effective GPS device for senior citizens.  With one of these GPS devices you can quickly find out where your relative has gone. Call the police as soon as you see them missing and request a Silver Alert to be announced so that  people in your community can be on the lookout for your loved one. But the police know that the missing person is wearing a GPS device and many police departments will be able to use the data to quickly bring your elderly loved one home.

 

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