When dealing with a missing person suffering from Alzheimer’s, time is of the essence. There is a risk of causing injury on themselves as well as others.
According to our caregivers who provide home care services in Oakland County, Michigan, the following are a few pointers that assisted them in locating a lost Alzheimer’s patient:
- Look for potentially hazardous sites around your home, such as bodies of water, dense foliage, tunnels, bus stops, and high balconies.
- Look into familiar locales, such as past residences or preferred hangouts. Wandering often has a specific destination in mind.
- Look within one hundred feet of a road, as most wanderers begin on roads and stay close to them. Look carefully into shrubs and ditches in particular, since your loved one may have fallen or become stuck.
- Examine the area within a one-mile radius of where the patient was before straying.
- Try looking in the direction of the wanderer’s dominant hand. People normally move in their dominant direction first.
Even with the utmost supervision, specialists like us who provide personal care services in Wayne County, Michigan, will occasionally have patients wander off. It is estimated that up to 60% of Alzheimer’s patients may wander at least once during the course of their condition.
While there is no foolproof preventative technique, there are technologies—GPS—available that drastically decrease the “find time” of someone who has wandered and is lost.
If you know someone who needs in-home elderly care assistance in Southfield, Michigan, please recommend them to Heaven Sent Home Support Services LLC.
We have years of demonstrated experience in this sector as a professional home care agency in Southfield, Michigan.
