Peace of Mind for Families of Alzheimer's Sufferers

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin police officer Dale Swallers gets a call to the 400 block of West Perry Street on the city's west side. Someone's grandmother or grandfather has gone missing. They were "just going to be gone a minute"--and never came back.

They are one in 5.1 million Americans--by some estimates--afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease or some other serious form of dementia. Some live with relatives or in care centers. Most live alone.

Finding someone isn't quite as hard when the temperature outside is 60 or 70 degrees. The problem of a lost family member or neighbor becomes exponential in summer's 90 degree heat or winter's 25 degree cold. There is that fear the person won't be found in time. It's frightening and it happens more than you think.

The Du Quoin Police Department is improving the odds dramatically with a high tech program called Care Trak.

When the hand-held directional antenna plugged into the receiver is in line with the transmitter worn on a wrist or ankle by the person at risk, the radio-tracking signal comes in stronger and louder. You simply follow the strong radio signal until you come up to the person. Remember playing Hot and Cold when you were a kid?

You are getting hotter when you get close and colder when you get further away. That's the idea behind Care Trak, and it works so well it has a 100 percent success rate in finding lost dementia patients.

Telemetry is the preferred technology because it is highly accurate and will track within inches of the lost person, day or night, inside or outside. Telemetry is not only the most effective solution it is the least expensive.

This is precisely why it is not the program name or the organization that you join that saves lives, but rather the quality of the equipment you use and training you receive.

The Du Quoin Police Department has one complete Care Trak pack which includes the receiver, antenna and bracelet. The frequency in the bracelet is programmed into the receiver so they match when the search begins.Bracelets can be added as families sign up, but the department is hoping that a community group will sponsor the purchase of a second receiver which would help police set up a search grid if the person has been gone for any period of time.

Telemetry (radio waves) tracking is not rocket science. Over the last 60 years there have been only minor improvements in telemetry simply because it is limited by science and physics. It is the nature of the beast. However, sometimes telemetry works much better. Care Trak's beginning were actually an evolution of wildlife tracking.

The key to a successful search is practice, practice and practice.

The newspaper was asked to accompany officer Swallers to the 400 block of West Perry Street in sort of a "Does It Work Wednesday?" exercise to see how accurate the system is.

Chief of Police Mike Ward took the bracelet unit and hid it roughly five blocks away--between a third and a half-mile. Officer Swallers plugged the antenna into the receiver and immediately got a signal--a rather faint signal--as he moved the antenna to his far left, then right--180 degrees. The faint "chirp" got louder as the antenna was placed directly in front of him. We began walking in that direction. We stopped a couple of times as officer Swallers fine-tuned the receiver, then began walking again. After about two blocks we began to get a solid signal, which got louder. We could see the Du Quoin Swimming Pool from where we were and thought the signal would take us there, but it didn't. Instead, the signal took us to a garage building used as a game room. As we circled the building, the antenna kept picking up the strongest signal from inside the building. The transponder was found sitting in the pocket of a gaming table.

In finding the device, we would have found the person we were looking for.

But, why not rely on a GPS transmitter instead.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are great for tracking cars, cargo, over the road trucks, hikers, ships and even gives directions to a new restaurant. But GPS is potentially dangerous for locating at risk people with Alzheimer disease, autism and other special needs.

GPS and Cell Phone type systems depend on satellites that orbit the earth and in most cases require a direct line of sight to the GPS bracelet the person at risk wears. As a general rule anything that blocks the sunlight, blocks a GPS tracking signal. GPS cannot track a person inside buildings such as homes, malls and schools. Heavy foliage and heavily clouded skies block areas a person may wander into and become lost. You cannot locate a person if that person is lying on top of the GPS tracking unit.

Chief Mike Ward, officer Dale Swallers and auxiliary officer Rodney "Rocky" Anders attended training at Care Trak's facility in Murphysboro.

If you want to sign up for Care Trak, contact the Du Quoin Police Department, which will explain possible one-time equipment costs and conditions of use.