Locating the Lost: High-Tech Help for Alzheimer's Patients

Nov. 4, 2010— -- When 87-year-old Ray Olson starts his daily morning walk, his wife starts the clock.

For about two years, Olson, who lives with his wife Joy Olson, 83, in San Jose, Calif., has been taking medication for dementia. At first, he would just forget little things, she said, but as his lapses became more serious, she began timing his morning walks.

If he didn't return home within an hour, she'd hop in the car and start driving around to find him. But after a couple of walks that lasted too long, she decided to seek some extra help.

Through the local sheriff's office, she learned about EmFinders, a technology company that uses the 911 network to locate missing people, and ordered one of its wristwatch-like tracking devices.

In the beginning, Joy Olson said, her husband wasn't too fond of the bracelet, refusing to wear it around his wrist but reluctantly agreeing to attach it his belt.

When the band helped her to locate him after he wandered off one morning, she said, his attitude toward the device changed.

"He doesn't verbalize it, but I know he didn't protest anymore when I put it on his belt," she said. "In fact, he actually picked it up himself and started to put it on his belt. He seemed to sense that somehow or other this was important to him and regarded his safety. ... So, of course, it made me feel a lot better to go have him go out with it on."

Joy Olson knows that if her husband wanders off and becomes lost, "time is of the essence."

Like many family members who care for people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, she's turning to technology to help give her peace of mind.

"People want mom to be safe, but you don't want mom to be isolated and not able to engage in the world around her," said Elinor Ginzler, senior vice president for the AARP. "For some people who have dementia, getting lost is anxiety producing and so this could, in fact, be a solution -- clearly for the caregiver ... but also for the care recipient as well."

Tracking technology is among the "most emerging and fascinating" areas of assistive technologies, she said, and for those seniors who are in early- to mid-level stages of dementia, it could provide an extra layer of protection.