Ostrich GPS trackers for persons living with dementia who are at risk of wandering

Ostrich Care have decided to offer “tracking devices”, supported by 24/7 365 geo tracking and contact to a live emergency call response centre.

The idea is that, for people with dementia who know they’re at risk of suddenly wandering, the trackers can be used to work out where that person has gone.

Norman McNamara describes the project in the short film above.

Norman describes the usual concerns about their use in his video, including whether it’s a proportionate response to wandering using the notion of human rights.

There’s no doubt that wandering can be a distressing and dangerous situation for certain individuals with dementia (and their closest.)

Practical issues which will be of concern to users of this device will inevitably include the idea of being tracked at all, whether the user will remember to take the tracker with him or her outside, or whether the battery life is sufficiently long such that the device doesn’t conk out.

Anyway, the idea is that this approach is voluntary, and will bring benefit to those who want or feel they need them.

Some information about the “Ostrich GPS tracker” is here.

This blogpost is not sponsored by Ostrich Care.