Auburn Joins Other Local Cities To Track Those With Alzheimer's, Dementia Using Radio Locators
PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) - A number of local cities are stepping up their efforts to keep people with cognitive disorders safe.
One in nine people aged 65 and over are living with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia and six out of 10 people living with dementia will wander at least once. The city of Auburn is stepping up with a way to keep them safe.
Bracelets that look like something you get at a concert or club are the latest technology used to track down those with a cognitive illness like dementia or Alzheimer's.
Each bracelet acts as a transmitter.
"Each transmitter is given a different radio frequency," said Lt. Bryan Morrison.
When someone is lost, the receiver can help ping the transmitter to locate them. Each bracelet has its own frequency and authorities can program each frequency into that one receiver. The bracelets use radio frequency instead of GPS because the research has shown there's less interruption with radio frequencies -- given various topographies.
It's all part of Project Lifesaver, which is funded through a grant from Placer County's Healthy Brain Initiative.
"We go out and locate people who have loved ones that suffer from these cognitive diseases and they apply to the program," he said.
Natasha Stevens with Placer County said, "They're going to fill in all the pertinent information about the info about the individual: their heighT, their weight, their habits."
The goal is not just to find someone who has wandered off but find them fast.
"Some of those searches can last hours upon hours and the idea behind this program is if we're notified quickly by caretakers we can then activate these receivers and hopefully cut that down into less than 30 minutes," she said.
The less time it takes to find them the better the chances are they will be OK.
The technology is already being used in Citrus Heights, Folsom, and Lincoln, which has 30 people signed up and has had one successful recovery.