Helping Caregivers Care with Confidence
Director of Wanderer's Safety Program
60% of persons with dementia are at risk of wandering or becoming lost. Or six out of ten people with Alzheimer’s will wander.
Wandering can be dangerous and even life threatening. This is a terrifying reality for both the person with dementia and their caregiver. But CaringKind provides solutions to help caregivers care with confidence. One such solution is our MedicAlert® NYC Wanderer’s Safety program. When a person with dementia goes missing, this service activates a community support network which includes law enforcement agencies. CaringKind and this network work together to help reunite the person who wandered with the caregiver or a family member.
We are proud to announce that in 2018 an additional 1,400 people with dementia were enrolled into the MedicAlert®NYC Wanderers Safety Program, bringing the grand total enrolled to 30,400. This would not have been possible without the support of caregivers, social workers, nursing home directors, manage care providers and the New York City Police Department.
For the many families and care providers who are still not sure if you should enroll someone, here is something for you to think about. MedicAlertNYC Wanderers Safety Program assist in many ways, especially when a person is reported missing by their caregiver or when a person is found and not reported missing.CaringKind MedicAlertNYC Wanderers Safety Program is a very prompt, simple and effective system for communicating pertain information concerning the member medical conditions, critical medications, and contact information during an incident.
As CaringKind MedicAlertNYC Wanderers Safety Program director, it’s my responsibility to work in collaboration with emergency room doctors and the police department whenever a person is reported missing or found.
Over the holidays I received a call from MedicAlert emergency Response Team notifying me Mr. Brown was found wandering approximately 15 miles from his home and the police were escorting him to a local hospital.
Because Mr. Brown had on his identification bracelet the police were able to call MedicAlert 24 Hour-Emergency Line and immediately request Mr. Browns medical conditions, critical medications and his primary and additional contacts; so that they can provide this crucial information to the emergency room doctor upon arrival to the emergency room.
The MedicAlert Emergency Response Team initiated a call to Mr. Browns primary and additional contact, listed on his application. When MedicAlert called Mr. Browns primary caregiver the phone numbers which were listed have been disconnected. They proceeded to call his daughter who was listed as a second contact, and the two phone numbers we had listed for her were also non-working numbers.
MedicAlert called the third contact who was listed as a cousin. Finally, the telephone rang, and the cousin answered. They were finally able to speak to the cousin and inform them Mr. Brown was found wandering and is being transported to a hospital.At that point MedicAlert placed a three-way call with the police officer and find out which hospital they were transporting Mr. Brown.
It is very important that our members information remains current in our database. Not having updated information can be detrimental toward the members emergency medical care. To all our caregivers of new and longstanding members, it is important for you to remember to provide you with exceptional service we need your support in keeping us informed with any changes that occur concerning your membership.
To update your records please call 1-888-572-8566. If you would like to enroll someone in to the Wanderers Safety Program you can do so by visiting our web-site at www.caringkindnyc.org or call 646-744-2918.