Tracking dementia patients with GPSAn NHS trust has become the first in the country to try fitting dementia patients with tracking devices. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust has worked with a technology company to develop an electronic tag for people with the condition. Sue Fulford-Dobson's partner Ian loves to take an evening stroll. Unfortunately, his vascular dementia means he then forgets where he is. "He is fascinated by sunsets," said Sue. "So suddenly at eight o'clock at night he will say: 'There's a lovely sunset; I think I'll just go and see if I can see it better'. And that's when he will disappear. "I mentioned to our GP this was becoming a problem. We'd had a couple of really bad incidents where we'd had to call the police out and he'd been missing for more than 24 hours, overnight." |
Text-messaging elephants' save farmers' fieldsElephants in Kenya are being fitted with collars which send warning text messages alerting rangers that herds of the animals are about to raid farmers' fields. Text-messaging elephants' save farmers' fields The pioneering scheme allows rapid response teams to race to scare them off before they strip villages of a year's maize or banana harvest in one night. An average of 25 such 'problem elephants' are culled each year in Kenya. Now some of the most notorious crop-raiders have been fitted with £2,500 collars which contain a mobile phone SIM card which sends an hourly GPS position to a central server in Nairobi, Kenya's capital. If the elephants stray close to a virtual 'fence' whose limits have been programmed into customised software, a text message is sent to the mobile phone of the closest wildlife rangers. They then scramble vehicles carrying spotlights and armed guards to scare the elephants away from the fields.
|
I'd Recommend It
We have been using the 'Locatemythings' tracker unit for a while now. It is attached to my 80 year old dad's keys, and my mum charges it up at night, at the same time as her phone. She has found Dad on a few occasions, including once some miles from home in a place where we would never ever have dreamt of looking for him (under the A4). It took some time to properly integrate it into lives, and clearly it involves some sacrifice of independence, but has, if only for a few weeks, allowed my dad to continue to walk the dog alone without the significant risks he was undertaking previously. He had gone missing for many hours, at night and in bad weather etc. I'd recommend it. Get the idea aired with the carer early in the course of Alzheimers, and don't leave implementing it until its too late for technology to be useful. Dr Sam Oddie, West Yorkshire |
| Locate Vulnerable People |
|
LocateMyThings are dedicated to the provision of devices that will assist in maintaining the health and safety of vulnerable people. LocateMyThings have been following the introduction of 'The Mental Capacity Act - Deprivation of Liberty safeguards' with the Department of Health. These safeguards came into effect on 1st April 2009. Click here to find out more about how we can help... |
| I'd Recommend It |
|
"We have been using the 'Locatemything' tracker unit for a while now. It is attached to my 80 year old dad's keys, and my mum charges it up at night, at the same as her phone. I'd recommend it. Get the idea aired wih the carer early in the course of Alzheimers, and don't leave implementing it until its too late for technology to be useful." Dr Sam Oddie, West Yorkshire |
