Finding Your Mom
We are a nationwide company dedicated to assisting families with at risk loved ones. Caring for a loved one with neurological issues such as Demetia or Alzheimer's has a lot of challenges. One of the scariest is when... not if... but when that loved one gets lost or wanders away. 6 out of 10 people with dementia will wander at least once and many do so repeatedly. Finding that person can be especially daunting because they often have no identification, can't remember names, phone numbers or address and sometimes they don't even know who they are. They can end up miles away and don't have the ability to find their way home which is an especially dangerous situation.
Our Journey
Our journey started when our mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's/dementia. Our grandfather had also suffered from Alzheimer's, but he lived several states away and we weren't involved with the day-to-day aspects of his care, so when mom started getting forgetful, we just chalked it up to daily stress from work. We really didn't realize how serious it was until covid happened and we were all quarantined together. It's interesting how well she covered up her forgetfulness so even then it took a couple of years before we finally got her to the doctor to see what was happening. Once she was diagnosed it started the long and confusing process of trying to figure out what to do to help her keep her independence but also keep her safe. One of the biggest challenges to date has been timing. When do you take their car away? How to maintain their relationships with friends and family? How do you curtail their freedom of movement to keep them safe without making them feel trapped? And how do you manage it all without giving up your own time and life?
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Unfortunately, there is no rule book for any of these things and too often you figure out the timing when something unfortunate happens. We took mom's driving privileges away when she wrecked her car but that created a whole new set of issues. She felt trapped at home and didn't understand why she couldn't just continue to do what she wanted to do. What we found was that no matter how carefully you plan, it will always be a challenge. Taking away the driving privileges led to her wandering and like so many other events it was her wandering off and us being unable to find her for hours that led us to create this website.
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There is no foolproof way to prevent an at-risk senior from wandering away and no sure-fire way to make sure they are found. We believe in doing everything we can to prevent the wandering from happening but if that should fail, which it often does, we wanted a way to help emergency personnel identify them and get them safely home. Every measure you take is important for their safety and we believe that the more you can do, the better your chances of keeping them safe are.
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We encourage everyone caring for an at-risk loved one to register their information on this site. Names and photos are available to the general public, but relevant contact information is only accessible to emergency personnel. Being able to quickly identify an at-risk senior and having easy access to their contact information is a great help to getting your loved one safely home.
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