People With Dementia To Be Fitted With Gps Tracking Devices,

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317963/Barbaric-No-electronic-tags-godsend-Alzheimers-sufferers--carers.html

Is the fitting of electronic tags on dementia sufferers a good idea or is it barbaric?

[EDDIE51]

I used to work in a care home, one of our residents was an expert escaper, 3 times we had to get the police helicopter out looking for her.
Another resident had a habit of getting on a bus , there was a bus stop just a few yards from the care home, he used to end up all over the place and hadn't a clue where he was or how to get back. I wish we had had tracking .

[naomi24]

Ratter, I know about dementia - really I do - and just as emergency alarm buttons are a good idea for the disabled and elderly, so this is. Anything that keeps the vulnerable safe has got to be good.

Woofgang, what point?

[society]

"Is the fitting of electronic tags on dementia sufferers a good idea or is it barbaric?"

A very good idea.

[askyourgran]

I think it's a good idea, my sis's mother-in-law was in a home and kept going awol. They lost her one evening for a few hours, she was found in a bus-stop shelter half-frozen about a mile away.

[joggerjayne]

So how do the tags work?

If they try to walk more than a set distance away, they get an electric shock?

[society]

I would think it might be something like GPS sorta thing, just guessing...

[EDDIE51]

JJ it is like the trackers on a car or a security van. It sends a signal giving it's location , the control room can see exactly where each signal is coming from. It use's the same technology as a sat nav but in reverse as it were.

[joggerjayne]

No electric shocks, then?

[Mamyalynne]

No love.

[tamborine]

Its got to be better than locking sufferers away and their only view to be the sky as in my grans case.

[Sammy48]

So after having this device fitted to a person who has already lost their dignity, who will have the equipment to track this person when they go walkabout, the carer or will it still fall to the emergency services to find them.

[tamborine]

Surely there would be less in care as the device would assist their families control.

[RATTER15]

Sammy, it would probably me trackable on a mobile phone. I have an app on my phone, if I lose it, I just send a password to my phone via text and it will send me a picture of the map showing the exact location of my phone within a few meters and the coordinates.

[emmie]

good piece in yesterdays paper about this, the woman's husband suffered from alzheimers and would sometime leave the house whilst her back was turned for a few seconds, often ending up miles from home, so perhaps there is some merit in it.

[RATTER15]

I think they are a great idea, I just wouldnt want them fitted against the persons will.

[emmie]

ratter, problem of course being if the person was suffering from dementia, alzheimers, what decision could they make, if they need 24 hour a day care, can't dress, feed themselves, they are not capable of making that kind of decision, so someone has to make it for them.

[RATTER15]

em that has been covered in previous posts, and anybody suffering to that degree will most like be in a secure home but yes it could happen, I am totally for it under those circumstances.

[emmie]

many care for their spouse with dementia, alzheimers, so not sure that all end up in a care home, perhaps they do eventually when the spouse is no longer able to. This woman had cared for her husband for years, how i really don't know, i looked after my o/h till he passed away and that sent me over the edge.

[RATTER15]

em, that is why I said "most" not all.

[naomi24]

Ratter, //anybody suffering to that degree will most like be in a secure home//

That isn’t true at all. A lot of sufferers are only in secure homes because they have become violent - which many do - and the carer - often an elderly spouse alone - can no longer cope.

It seems a barmy argument to me. If people's mental faculties are failing to the degree that they cannot care for themselves, then rather than banging on about respecting their choices in matters of their own safety, surely we should just do what is clearly best to keep them from harm.