Hi there! Welcome to my blog. My name is Debbie and I am a housewife from Alice Springs, Australia. I love the life I have here with my wonderful husband and our four kids. It all started about a year ago when I realised that I couldn't read the label on a jar of food I was trying to open. I asked my husband if there was a problem with the way the label had been printed but he said he could read it just fine. He booked me an appointment at Vision2000Kota and they carried out some test to rule out any serious problems. Thankfully, I just needed to start wearing glasses. I hope you enjoy my health and medical blog.
Beat Disease and Keep Fighting Fit
Dementia Care: Can Medical Alarms Keep Tabs on Your Parent?
Regina Barnett
Juggling a job with caring for a parent with dementia is hard. There will be times during the day when you can't be there and can't know what your parent is up to. Even if you have care givers coming in regularly while you're at work, and your parent generally copes well alone, then there may be times when your parent wanders off, and you don't know where they are.
If your parent does sometimes wander out of the house and get lost, then you may have had some anxious waits until they turn up again or are found. Some medical alarms have GPS systems that could help you deal with these situations. What should you look out for?
Wandering Alerts
You can set distance alerts on some medical alarms. So, for example, the alarm sends you a text message if it is taken outside a certain area. If your parent leaves the house and starts wandering down the street, you'll know they are outside as soon as they pass this distance boundary because you'll get an alert.
This is a handy feature. You may spend a lot of your working day worrying about what your parent is doing and if they are safe. If your alarm uses distance alerts, then you'll know immediately if they leave your home when they aren't supposed to.
Location Data
Even if you leave home immediately to try and track your parent down when you get a range alert, they could go a fair distance before you get there. You may have no idea where they are. If you use a medical alarm with GPS tracking, then this isn't a problem.
Some alarms give you real-time location data. For example, you can send a message to the alarm, and it will tell you where it is. Alarms often use map data for location tracking, so you can see where your parent is in the local area.
This feature is also useful if you have a helpful neighbour who keeps an eye on your parent while you're at work. You don't want your neighbour to have to organise a search party to find your parent – this is asking a bit much – however, if you have a location, you can just tell your neighbour where your parent is.
To find out more about medical alarms and tracking, ask your aged care agency for advice on models and benefits.
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