GPS for Alzheimer's Patients
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia that gets worse with time and finally leads to death of the patient. Still there is no cure for the disease. The disease is most common in people over 65 years of age and is recognized by confusion, irritability and aggression, mood swings, trouble with language, and long-term memory loss.
About 60% of all patients with suffering from Alzheimer?s wanders at some point during the course of their disease and of these almost 50% dies if they are not found within 24 hours. Being no certain cure for the disease, GPS technology has proved to be a boon for the patients of Alzheimer.
The US Department of Defense (DOD) for navigation purposes initiated GPS or Global positioning system, in 1973. And since, then the technology has been successfully implemented for a variety of purposes especially related to tracking.
Use of GPS technology in personal locator devices can be very useful to pinpoint the location of lost Alzheimers patients. One of the excellent initiatives in this regard has been taken by Applied Digital Solutions with the launch of a device called Digital Angel. This device can be worn on your hand as a watch and contains a separate clip-on pager. A GPS mapping software is already installed in the device and regular alerts are sent to the caretakers of the patient using e-mail, if the patient wanders out of a pre-designated area.
Similarly, GTX Corporation has come up with GPS enabled shoes that are predicted to be a boon for the Alzheimer patients. GTX Corp. has already come up with the first 3,000 pairs of shoes to be sold through Aertex World Wide. The shoes can also be programmed to send an alert if the wearer gets out of a specified area. The shoes works in synchronization with google map is thus able to give you the exact location of the patient. The initial cost of the shoes is $300.
In addition to that, other GPS tracking options that are available are as tracking bracelets and small assist buttons. These can be kept in the pocket or can be fixed in clothes to track the patients. Moreover, you can also use a wander guard that alerts you if someone opens the door to leave.
So, if you are taking care of any Alzheimers patient, and want the patient to return home safely, GPS personal locators are the best option for you. Using these locators you can easily be able to find exactly where your loved one is lost.