Email

By Harriette Halepis

CTV, Montreal, Canada, February 1, 2010 – On Sunday January 31, 2010, an 80 year old Montreal woman who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease was found frozen to death. The woman wandered away from the home that she shared with her son early Sunday morning. By the time that her son woke to find his mother missing, it was too late.

GPS Tracking in Shoes

Montreal police found the woman in the parking lot of a local shopping mall wearing nothing but her nightgown in -20 weather. The elderly woman wandered away from her home last year, though she was found unharmed. This is not the first incident involving an elderly person with Alzheimer’s that Montreal police have encountered.

Last year, a 73 year old woman with Alzheimer’s disease was frozen to death after wandering away from her home in the middle of the winter. Both incidents resulted in death, and this is prompting the city of Montreal to reconsider GPS tracking bracelets for Alzheimer’s patients.

The Montreal police force plans to present the city with GPS tracking statistics that prove the worth of GPS tracking bracelets when it comes to Alzheimer’s patients. While this seems like a good idea to many city officials, some people are entirely opposed to the GPS tracking devices.

Executive Director of the Griffith McConnell Residence (Annette Rudy) told CTV reporters that forcing patients to wear GPS trackers “…waives one’s right to privacy, which is there in the charter of human rights.” Under the care of the Griffith McConnell Residence, patients are required to wear magnetic bracelets that set off alarms if patients attempt to leave the building.

Rudy went on to tell reporters that the key to preventing elderly people from wandering is to make sure that each person is “…extremely closely supervised at all times.” Only, what about those people who can’t afford a private residence such as the Griffith McConnell Residence (rates at this Montreal residence range from 1,752 to $4,910 per month)?

With cost as a main consideration, the only solution to the current problem is to make use of GPS ankle bracelets. Even though the implementation of such bracelets will cost the city a bit of money, there’s no doubt that the two women who suffered the fate of harsh winter winds would be alive today if GPS bracelets were part of the equation.