Tracking device to find grandmother

[andrewv]

My grandma has dementia and, among other things, often wonders off for hours and we have no idea where she is. We've had to call the police twice now to help find her.

We're looking into buying some sort of tracking device which we can put in her handbag so we can easily find her again the next time she goes missing. This sort of product seems to be fairly common for Alzheimers/dementia sufferers in the US but I haven't been able to find any information on UK-based services.

We've considered picking up an iPhone or similar which allows users to share their location with friends automatically, but a phone would need to be charged every other day at least and there's no way that she'd remember to do this. So instead we're trying to find something purpose-made.

Does anyone here use something like this that they can recommend?

[Dazmum]

I was looking into something similar for my mum. have a look on the west sussex county council website as they have a system where you buy a gadget that sits in a pocket or more likely a handbag and gives off a gps signal linked to a website that shows a map location of where the person is. I don't know if it is a national system but you would be able to check.

I'm doing this via my phone otherwise i would put the link for you!

[andrewv]

I was looking into something similar for my mum. have a look on the west sussex county council website as they have a system where you buy a gadget that sits in a pocket or more likely a handbag and gives off a gps signal linked to a website that shows a map location of where the person is. I don't know if it is a national system but you would be able to check.

I'm doing this via my phone otherwise i would put the link for you!

thanks Dazmum.

we've had a look on the website but can't find the service. Do you remember what it was called?

Thanks
Andrew

[Dazmum]

I'll have a look for you when i can get to my pc, may be later today if that's ok.

[Dazmum]

Found it! the website address is

www.mindme.co.uk its run through council careline. systems. it was chichester council so sorry to send you on the wrong track.

[andrewv]

Thank you that looks perfect, have you used it yourself?

[jenniferpa]

There have been a few threads in the past about GPS trackers

http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showt...acking-Devices
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showt...5-GPS-tracking

http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showt...ndering-people

[nmintueo]

(Jenniferpa, you beat me to it)
See also some previous threads:

Tracking devices outside the home
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showt...tside-the-home

GPS Tracking Devices
http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showt...acking-Devices

The GPS has been a god send. I know I can drive straight to him now if I wanted to by calling his GPS for its position.

[Dazmum]

I haven't as other things occurred and mum is now in a care home, but we did talk to the company and it all seemed reasonable and effective.