Wandering (dementia) - Wandering Prevention

Wandering Prevention

The most common form of wandering prevention is for a caregiver to remain in the company of the person likely to wander, so the caregiver can either accompany them or prevent them from wandering when the situation occurs.

Here are some alarming statistics:

• Ten percent of all lawsuits involving nursing homes deal with elopements. • Seventy percent of these lawsuits involve the death of a resident. • The primary cause of elopement-related deaths include: – being struck by a vehicle. – exposure to heat or cold. – drowning. – abuse (physical and sexual.) • In eighty percent of cases, the resident was known to be a wanderer with prior elopements. • In forty-five percent of cases, the event occurred within the first 48 hours of admission. • Incidents of elopement occur in every state and in all levels of care.

Technology is changing and improving wandering prevention in the home and for facilities at risk of elopement.

No facility or home is elopement proof. The latest technology in wandering prevention is a device by LOK8U(Locate You) called the Freedom Wandering Prevention & Emergency Alert Watch. See Technology area

Other methods used to prevent wandering, or simply to reduce the risk of wandering out of bounds, include: drugs, physical restraints, physical barriers, 24-hour real-time surveillance, and tracking devices. All of these methods have ethical issues and one, use of physical restraints, is widely considered to be inhumane. Tracking devices of several kinds have been evaluated.

Much of the literature on wandering concerns persons resident in institutions. Studies on wandering from private residences are insufficient for comparison of prevention via drugs versus other methods.

The risk of wandering can be reduced by several low-tech and minimally intrusive techniques, including: placing a visual barrier such as a curtain across a doorway.

Wandering can be due to a person searching for stimulation. If a wanderer does not purposefully attempt to escape the location where they are, a minimal barrier can deter wandering behaviour. However, some wanderers will look for a familiar route from their past, while others will simply 'explore.'

Some cases of wanderers operating vehicles and driving either aimlessly or along a familiar route have been reported.

In response to wandering seniors, 25 states have adopted Silver Alert programs. Silver Alert is a program similar to AMBER Alert to notify the public of missing seniors with dementia and other cognitive disabilities.