Safety/Security

If you are concerned your loved one is wandering:

• put an iPod or Android app on your phone and a transmitter that they would wear on their wrist, in their pocket, or wear on a cord.
• install alarms when doors are opened or, if your loved one is short or has difficulty reaching up, install a traditional chain lock at the top of a screen door that they can’t reach.
• use audio or video technology that will alert you if your loved one leaves home. This may motion-sensor alarms (in the home or outside); or even a simple stick-on door chime alarm.
• use a bed sensor pad that alerts when a senior gets out of bed
• use an app on your phone and a small tag transmitter that is used to find lost luggage, but would be slipped onto their shoelaces.
• use a GDP watch and/or identity bracelet
• ensure that the person always has some identification on them
• get a medical alert bracelet with your loved one’s name engraved on the front and your phone # on back, along with “dementia” or “memory impaired” 

This article from AARP has more good tips.

If your loved one is a fall risk:

• Put a memory foam pad where they exit the bed, if you have hard floors vs. carpet.
• Install a baby monitor camera in the room so you can see when you’re loved one is trying to get up and you’re in another room.
• Have a push-button Life-Alert or other medical alert that they can wear

Tip:

Get a lockbox (with a combination on the box) that can be shared with caregivers. You can put in credit cards, medications, keys, whatever it is that you don’t want lost.

–Nancy O.