Editor’s note: Home Sweet Home is a feature appearing Mondays in McKnight’s Home Care Daily. The story focuses on a heartwarming, entertaining or quirky happening affecting the world of home care. If you have a topic that might be worthy of the spotlight in Home Sweet Home, please email Diane Eastabrook at diane.eastabrook@mcknights.com.
One of the challenges of caring for patients at home with memory impairments, such as dementia, is the wandering risk. The Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Support Initiative, based in Plattsburgh, NY, offers a solution. Its Project Lifesaver is designed to help caregivers keep track of their loved ones and locate them if they wander.
“A lot of the time, people don’t know where to turn or where they can get help,” Kristen Osterhoudt, education and training coordinator for the initiative, explained. “Project Lifesaver is a bracelet that emits radio frequency waves, so in the event that someone with dementia was to wander, they would be able to locate them very quickly.”
Project Lifesaver has been instrumental in helping caregivers keep track of their loved ones’ whereabouts and prevent them from wandering off, she noted. And the program boasts a 100% success rate in bringing people who wander back to their families. Osterhoudt explained that the service gives even the most diligent caregivers a measure of solace.
“Everyone has to sleep, everyone has to go to the bathroom sometimes,” Osterhoudt said. “So it’s impossible for people living in their home with someone with memory impairment to supervise them 24/7. It gives them some peace of mind to know that in the event of an emergency, they would be able to find their loved one very quickly.”
Osterhoudt is proud of what her organization offers.
“I love my job. I love what we do here,” Osterhoudt said. “I think it’s such a valuable program. We provide services for caregivers. Anyone with any kind of memory impairment. And we have a grant from the New York State Department of Health to provide those services, which is wonderful.”
