Your Loved One with Dementia: Keep Them Safe in the Most Loving Ways

Over 400,000 Australians are living with dementia and your loved one may be one of them. Due to memory disorders and personality changes, people with dementia tend to wander around and get lost without strict supervision, and especially when they are living alone.

Wandering is quite usual among people with dementia and it is very concerning for families who take care of them, but we know it’s not their intention. Their failing memory and decreasing ability to communicate can make it impossible for them to remember, or explain how and why they wandered.

While doctors have been keenly studying about dementia and how to decrease the number of people having it, we have to also be tailing down ways to improve the lifestyle of our affected loved ones. If we can’t stop them from wandering, let’s track them in the most comfortable and loving ways as possible.

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The breakthrough in technology has given us one of the most useful system in history — the GPS tracking. This rapidly growing field is developed to track locations for different options. We are now able to track people, devices, cars, and even people’s behaviors. These devices have also been involved in solving crimes, and preventing them. It is even used for medical and military purposes.

The most wonderful fact about this is that our geniuses developed this system into products we use for everyday life. GPS tracking systems are plugged into the most usable devices we use everyday — mobile phones, fashionable wristbands, watches, vehicles, fashionable lanyards with GPS-installed pendants, keyholders, luggage belts, etc. They know for sure that even people without dementia, because of stress and time-chase, we sometimes become forgetful!

So how do you track your loved one with dementia?

Here are a few key steps.

1. Attach identification

We might have missed this common thing, but it is important that the patient always wears something attached with a form of identification. It can be a simple card or a bracelet with the person’s name, contact phone and family’s address.

2. Identify wandering pattern

It is also helpful to keep record of the person’s activities and whereabouts on a daily basis. This will help you gain control of the situation.

3. Keep them busy

People with dementia love to watch movies, looking at pictures, and the overlook of nature by the window of the bedroom. This will not only prevent them from wandering, but it will also help preserve memories and stay happy.

It is also important to communicate with them about a wonderful events in the past, or any simple topic they can relate to. Exercise also helps the person release excess energy and this will help them keep their body fit and at the same time, lessen their energy for roaming around.

4. Invest in GPS trackers

Purchase products with GPS trackers that are light, fashionable and easy to use such as wristbands, pendant-like attachable to lanyards, watches, anklets and belts. This way, they can’t easily remove it or leave it. Unlike mobile devices, these items are attached to a part of their body and can’t easily be detached.

Keeping them always feeling loved is still the best way to keep them from wandering. Your ability to share your valuable time with the person you love helps them keep calm and stress away confusion and anxiety. This will decrease their time searching for the past, ease their physical discomfort, and relieve their feeling of agitation. However, if our reliance in technology can help us keep our family safe and protected, it is worth the expense.