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GPS tracking technology has revolutionized several industries by allowing users to remotely track the location of valuable property. Missing smartphones and vehicles can be tracked from anywhere with internet access. Remote species of birds and solitary wildlife can be studied from a safe, unimposing distance. One of the more recent uses for GPS tracking has been developed for the wandering elderly population suffering from degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The technology has already been used to track autistic children, who are also at high risk of wandering off and getting lost.

There are few things more stressful for caregivers, family and friends, than when a loved one goes missing. Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease often cause the sufferer to be confused and wonder off, sometimes searching for a childhood home. It is scary enough getting lost as an independent, capable adult, but when it happens to young children, the elderly or disabled people, it can be life threatening. The earlier the person is located, the better his or her chances of returning home safely. There is no way to guarantee that your loved one won’t wander off, but with GPS tracking, he or she can be found quickly and easily.

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) and Breadcrumb L.L.C. announced earlier this month, that they have developed a GPS device and monitoring system for elderly patients and their caregivers. The GPS tracking device is called the BC300, and though it is not the first tracking devices designed for Alzheimer’s patients, it is the first to be offered through QVC, a leading multimedia retailer. The device comes with a charging station, adapter, rechargeable batteries, USB cable, attachment bands and instructional DVD. In addition to QVC’s online store, the tracking system will also be available at alzfdn.org (AFA’s online store) and breadcrumbgps.com (Breadcrumb’s store).

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Monitoring Seniors with Memory-Retention Problems

It has long been known that senior citizens are high-risk drivers. Many of the elderly that are sometimes involved in car accidents suffer from mental incapacities such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, causing delays in motor skills that may lead to danger on the roadways. Sometimes it can be quite apparent that a senior has one of these conditions, and sometimes it is not.

Elderly Drivers & GPS

Wouldn’t it be of great value to know if a senior citizen in your family was capable of still operating their own motor vehicle safely and independently? Wouldn’t you want the assurance that your parent, family member or friend was of sound mind to be on the road alone?

Today you can have that assurance with GPS tracking systems that are not only efficient, but cost-effective as well. GPS trackers are easy to use and can be affixed to a vehicle with or without the knowledge of the senior. After attaching or installing a vehicle tracking device to the automobile, the concerned person can remotely access the GPS tracking data. The GPS monitoring information will then allow the concerned person to uncover where the senior is going, how fast or slow they are going and other pertinent information about their driving habits.

With the kind of knowledge a concerned family member, parent or friend can receive from the GPS tracking system; absolute confidence can be felt whether or not it is time to take away the keys from grandma or grandpa.

Almost all of the seniors interviewed about having their keys taken away stated they were upset about the loss of independence. However, they also stated that they felt that it was probably time for them to hang the keys up. All of us will likely reach that point sometime in our lives.

Affordable and dependable GPS tracking devices have provided the solution for many people and families dealing with the issue of senior drivers. Nothing is more important than protecting our seniors and general public; however, it can be difficult to know with complete certainty when the time has come to retrieve the car keys. GPS tracking devices can provide that certainty.

Ryan Horban is a guest author who specializes in writing about GPS technology and monitoring devices for Tracking System Direct.

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By Greg Bartlett

With 26.6 million people diagnosed with Alzheimers, far too many families understand the risk and concerns that go along with caring for a victim of this disease. Alzheimer patients will often wander away from their family and/or caretakers without giving any information about where they went.

GPS Tracking & Alzheimer's

Since the invention of GPS tracking, it has been used in several ways. Police can track criminals on parole, parents can track their young teenage drivers, and suspicious spouses can monitor their possibly unfaithful mate. Recently, several states have discussed widening its uses and implementing GPS devices into their Silver Alert Programs.

The tendency of Alzheimer victims to wander has given rise to Silver Alerts. Similar to Amber Alert, Silver Alerts allow caretakers and family to broadcast, over the television, radio, or other media, information about a missing Alzheimer sufferer. GPS tracking can make finding someone in these dangerous and too often heartbreaking situations easier. Families can put a GPS device into the shoe or some other piece of clothing of a loved one. Alerts will be sent to family members phone or computer if the loved one passes a certain line. Also, GPS tracking devices can help families avoid situations like that of 77 year old William Young, found dead in a river after wandering from his house several days earlier. One can only wonder how Young’s situation and other like it might have ended differently were Young outfitted with a GPS device.

GPS devices have already been useful in similar situations. In fact, due to the success of GPS tracking in such circumstances, Indianapolis is discussing making these devices mandatory for Alzheimer victims. Discussion continues on this possible piece of legislation. Many groups feel the move is unnecessary, others feel it will save lives. However, both sides agree that an optional GPS program, at least, will greatly decrease the chances of more missing or dead Alzheimers victims and their grieving families. Regardless of whether a law is passed, all families dealing with an Alzheimer Disease situation need to consider GPS tracking.

Many families and caretakers may wonder if the price of a GPS tracking device is worth the investment. However, with prices always falling and the safety of a loved one in question, these devices are worth the investment. Those with a loved one suffering from Alzheimer Disease should start looking into the devices immediately.

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by James Neely, freelance writer: click | HERE | to check out GPS products from Rocky Mountain Tracking

We have heard a lot of talk about the good that GPS Tracking devices can do for those with Alzheimer’s and related dementia disorders.  But, what about those who are not quite to the point of having been fully diagnosed?  Should they be left out of consideration?

Elderly Drivers & GPS

Consider the following story out of the Cincinnati, Ohio area to reinforce this point.  In this account, an elderly couple became lost on their way to a local store and ended up almost two hours and one state away.

Look, no one likes to speak up when it is time to tell elderly parents that it is time for them to surrender the keys to their cars, but it must be done.  This story could have had a disastrous ending for the couple and their family.

What makes this even more difficult of a decision is that with budget cuts abounding, it is hard for some citizens to find public transportation when they need it.

The one solution to help those who are still driving and are in this situation is to install a GPS Tracking device into vehicles that are driven by those who are at greatest risk.  Here’s the reasons why this makes sense:

Instant Location

With GPS Tracking installed, you never wonder where the vehicle is located.  In fact, you can monitor the location from a PC in your home or office.  Noticing where the car is and noting that something does not look right, can help trigger an assistance call to check up on the drivers / family members.

Trip Monitoring

Are your parents ‘snow birds?’  Do they travel the Interstates for long periods of time to get to and from their winter homes?  If so, then a GPS Tracking device is a MUST HAVE for them.  No one likes to think about their parents on the road by themselves with dangers all around them.  GPS Tracking allows you to breathe easier.

Speed Watching

Reports from these GPS Tracking units allow you to view speed data.  You can make sure that the drivers of these vehicles are obeying posted limits.  Also, should they be stopped and issued a ticket for excessive speed, you can fight that ticket if the evidence shows that they were in compliance with posted limits.

Banding Together

One solution to help the elderly get around to locations that they need to go is to find a transportation organization that specifically targets them for rides to and from stores in the area.

If you parents are still on the road, use a GPS Tracking device.  If you need to make a decision to revoke their driving privileges, then good luck.  It is not an easy situation either way, but one that must be met head-on.

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By Greg Bartlett

With Thanksgiving passed and the rest of the holidays still to come, many are grateful for the opportunity to spend time with family and friends, enjoying fellowship, fun, and food. Unfortunately, a great number of Americans this season will be forced to seek their meals from food banks, churches, and shelters. Efforts by these charities to reach out to those in need are plentiful, yet inefficiency and disorganization can quickly become an issue in churches trying to provide for so many hungry people. Getting food out to where it’s needed most is a managerial nightmare without the proper tools. How can technology, specifically GPS trackers, aid the hungry?

The Athena Project, a $60 million dollar initiative by Feeding America, thinks it has the answer. The effort is developing and installing advanced tracking and management equipment in roughly 200 food banks across the country. GPS trackers will be installed on delivery vehicles and aid packages, allowing management staff to keep tabs on it all. The technology will also allow drivers to pick more efficient routes, saving much needed cash in a non-profit industry hit just as hard by the recession as anyone else.

GPS & Hunger

Waste will be reduced, and in the event of a food product recall (a nightmare scenario to aid workers), management will be able to quickly identify those who received contaminated goods. Also, the information provided by GPS trackers will allow food banks to compare those regions covered by their workers and adjust their responsibilities in the case of overlap.

Charities have just as much need for efficiency as any other organization. While their concern obviously isn’t profit, the bottom line is often aiding the needy in a way that best makes use of their donors’ funds. The savings provided by GPS trackers and advanced fleet management systems truly can help. In this case, GPS trackers made a fine donation to food banks which didn’t individually have the extra cash to invest in such a system, yet will greatly benefit from its use.

Feeding America’s affiliates serve more than 25 million in the US annually, including 3 million seniors and 9 million children. The organization handles over 2.5 billion pounds of found each year. Such a large operation, especially since eclipsed by other similar organizations, demonstrates the great need for organization and efficiency in aid groups across the country. GPS trackers, selected and implemented carefully, can be a great part of that.

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By Greg Bartlett

For family and caretakers, elderly individuals can create a lot of worry since they may wander off and become injured or killed. Individuals with Alzheimer’s, for instance, frequently wander off and become lost. Some, attracted to water, end up drowning while others can even freeze to death on cold nights if they can’t remember the way home.

GPS Tracking & Elderly

You naturally want to be sure that your elderly relative is safe. Sure, you can do that by practically locking the relative up and making sure he or she is always personally supervised, but that’s not much fun for the patient or the family and caretakers. You may not want to send your elderly grandmother to a nursing home or some facility that can care for her, but you aren’t able to be home and constantly supervise her. So what can you do?

GPS technology has recently been adapted to be used for tracking people, including children and elderly individuals who tend to wander and get lost. A GPS tracking device is typically small and can easily be attached to an individual – or they can even be made to go in clothing or shoes so that your grandmother won’t forget to put hers on in the morning.

Once you are monitoring someone with a GPS tracking device, you’ll be able to find out exactly where the individual is at any time. GPS is accurate to within a few feet, so if your grandmother wanders through your neighborhood, you can find out exactly where she is almost instantly. Furthermore, a GPS tracking device can be set up with geofences, or boundaries, so that if your grandmother crosses those invisible boundaries you’ll be alerted at once. If your geofence just includes your house and yard, for instance, and your grandmother manages to slip out the back gate, you’ll receive a text message, phone call, or email informing you that the geofence had been crossed. Of course the geofence won’t actually stop your grandmother, but it will alert you if she leaves the safe boundaries of your house and yard. Some GPS units can even set up particular paths and secondary areas, such as another relative’s house, which are still included in the ‘safe’ zones.

Worrying about your elderly relative is natural, considering how much danger he or she can get in if lost. But with a GPS tracking device, you’ll be able to monitor your relative and help ensure his or her safety.

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By Greg Bartlett

GPS tracking systems have provided many different uses, one of which is the element of safety. GPS tracking devices can be set with geo-fences to keep small children and forgetful senior citizens from wandering off.

Seniors Tracking

The state of Indiana is considering mandating the use of GPS tracking devices on senior citizens. There are there are several advantages to this system, such as being able to easily locate anyone who gets lost. The inspiration for this legislation comes from the Silver Alert law. This law gives the police a media alert system when a disabled person or a person with dementia goes missing. This program, which is similar to the Amber Alert program for missing children, has been used a few times since it was started during the summer of 2009. It could be very helpful especially when used with those who already have a record of wandering.

Although the new program might take several years to work its way into the state’s budget, the idea of a GPS tracking system for senior citizens works on the individual level as well. Family members of those with dementia will find it very comforting to know that their loved one is continually being tracked. Geo-fencing capabilities of GPS tracking systems brings the added comfort of being notified if the person being tracked ever strays from home.

Although the Indiana lawmakers are just interested in finding out more information about this possible law, the people of Indiana may not be ready for such a mandate. Experts suggest that the state of Indiana gives this new Silver Alert program some time to work. This is a great program to heavily encourage, but they should not make it a state-wide law.

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By Greg Bartlett

In the United States, most patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s or Senile Dementia are placed in nursing homes or skilled care facilities. This move is made for their protection, yet it alienates many elderly from their families. GPS tracking of these patients could make it possible for them to stay at home longer.

In the United Kingdom, most dementia patients are left in their own homes for as long as humanly possible to assure their care by family members. Unfortunately, many of these individuals end up getting lost, involving police in searches to find them, or they end up locked in their own homes while family members run errands. City government in some London areas is backing the use of GPS tracking to monitor Dementia patients.

Even people who suffer from various forms of Dementia have human rights, including a right to privacy. However, if a family member is able to get a Dementia patient to volunteer for the GPS tracking, devices are attached to clothing or jewelry that will allow family members to track the movements of their elderly relations with dementia.

These devices can be used to set up an electronic fence and notify family members when the elderly patient travels beyond a set distance from home. If the patient does not return on time, the GPS data will allow the family to locate and recover the patient without having to involve local authorities unless an emergency situation exists.

Government officials are quick to inform family members that the use of these devices for their elderly relations with dementia is not to be used as a substitute for vigilant care on the part of loved ones. However, GPS tracking does provide a certain amount of freedom that many Dementia patients need in order to continue to live in their own homes instead being put into some sort of facility.

This program is being used with success in the United Kingdom. It might be a good idea to try it in the US as well. This could be the means to keep some of elderly patients who can still mostly take of themselves out of skilled care facilities for a longer time, which would save them and their families a great deal of money in the long run. Plus, the elderly patients who volunteer to wear the GPS tracking devices can feel more secure that their families are looking after them instead of shipping them off to some facility from nobody returns.

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By Greg Bartlett

An all too common news story appears on the television or in the newspaper. An elderly parent has wandered off from home and can’t be found. Too often this story ends in tragedy. The elderly parent is found dead due to exposure to the elements. The truly sad part of this story is that it is completely avoidable. The question of where did dad go can be answered with a GPS tracking device for the elderly.

As people age, an often unfortunate consequence is diminished mental faculties. This can be a result o Alzheimer’s disease or any number of other problems that afflict the elderly. The elderly person can leave home with a specific destination in mind and loose their way, become confused and not be able to find their way home. This confusion often ends with tragic results.

In today’s society, the cost of nursing home or extended care facilities may be beyond the reach of the average family. Additionally the family may feel that they want to care for the elderly parent themselves. This home based extended care, while at best difficult at times, fulfills the families need to provide for the parent.

Personal GPS tracking devices provide the exact location of the elderly when they leave home. When the elderly parent is taken to the local Senior Center for interaction with people of their own age, there is no guarantee that they will stay there. The possibility of them wandering away is always a possibility.

Should they wander away, there is also the possibility that their being absent could not be noticed by one of the attendants at the Senior Center. Providing a GPS tracking device to the elderly parent will allow the position of the parent to always be known. Knowing exactly where the parent is will minimize inattention by care givers. Should the elderly parent decide to walk to the corner store, there is the possibility that they could become disoriented and wander away. The utilization of a GPS tracking device will always allow them to be located.

Loosing a parent is always traumatic for the children. Should the parent become lost and die because they could not find their way back home simply increases the trauma. This trauma is completely avoidable through the utilization of a GPS tracking device that is in the possession of the elderly parent. Should the elderly parent become disoriented and lost, their position can easily and quickly be identified and the children can recover the parent with no harm coming to the parent.

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By Greg Bartlett

Your loved one may suffer from dementia, tuberculosis, Alzheimer’s, or any one of a number of health issues. You aren’t just worried about your loved one’s health and physical well being, but about their location. If your loved one wanders off and gets lost, how will anyone be able to help if a need arises?

Freedom to Drive

Doctors are also beginning to use GPS tracking devices with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. At least a third of individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s regularly get lost, and around twenty-five percent of patients are sometimes locked out of their houses by family members who don’t know realize that the patient is outside of the house. For instance, one elderly patient in Florida with Alzheimer’s recently wandered off, but was quickly located by family members through a GPS system before he had gone very far.

Patients can also be kept out of nursing homes or hospitals since the family members feel more capable of safely and effectively caring for the patients. They no longer have to feel the stress of not knowing if their loved ones are safe since all they have to do is check with the GPS system to discover where their loved ones are.

GPS tracking devices allow and family members and health professionals to be notified by a phone call or text message if patients go outside a specified area, such as their regular daily track. Family members and health professionals can monitor the individuals and their locations through GPS systems, thus protecting patients from getting lost and separated from the help they need.

You no longer need to spend nights worrying about the safety of your loved ones. With GPS tracking devices, your family members with health issues can live independent lives while still at home and can have the freedom to go where they want while still being safely monitored.

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