Red Cross to Track Vulnerable Dementia Patients

MEDIA RELEASE

16 March 2007

Red Cross to Track Vulnerable Dementia Patients

The Palmerston North branch of New Zealand Red Cross is about to launch an innovative new tracking programme designed to save the lives of people suffering from dementia related illness. Red Cross may offer the programme to other communities in need in the future.

Red Cross’ regional director David Neal says Red Cross was aware of several recent examples of dementia patients leaving their place of care and becoming lost. “The results have been tragic,” he says.

The tracking programme, called Sircare, is a VHF transmitting and receiving system that will be monitored by Red Cross’ Manawatu based Emergency Response Unit (ERU). Dementia patients wear discrete tracking pendants, in either a watch or necklace, which emit a silent ‘beep’. The monitoring system can track the ‘beep’ and assist in locating the person wearing the pendant if they are reported as lost.

Red Cross have been working closely with the Alzheimer’s Society Manawatu, and the Police’s land search and rescue unit to develop the tracking system.

Palmerston North man, Brian Gifford Moore has also been an integral part of the development team. Mr Gifford Moore was the co-ordinator in the search for family member Andrew Hodge, a dementia patient who went missing from his Palmerston North rest home.

“If patients wearing the special pendants get lost, locating them will be easier when the Red Cross ERU tracks the beeps. The faster we can track these vulnerable people down, the faster we can get them back to safety,” says Mr Neal.

The ERU has already begun training with the system, and the Palmerston North branch will purchase further pendants for selected dementia patients. Alzheimer’s Society Manawatu and local health care providers will select the patients they consider most at risk to receive the pendants.

365 days a year, New Zealand Red Cross helps those who are sometimes unable to help themselves. Over 24,000 people per week are helped out in some way by New Zealand Red Cross in our communities.

ENDS

© Scoop Media