A Bluetooth Tracking Device That Helps To Locate People With Dementia

Getting misplaced affects the standard of life of older individuals who could undergo from dementia. Naturally, it worries their caregivers too, but what can technology do to assist? A telephone survey of 251 household caregivers of people with dementia (1) in 2007 discovered that the prevalence of getting lost amongst community-dwelling folks with dementia was at around 28%. These individuals had been most more likely to get misplaced on the street (24%). 61% of respondents would seek for care recipients in neighborhood, whereas 12% would search assist from associates and neighbours. It was also discovered that 46% of care recipients were positioned within one hour of missing and 96% inside 24 hours. Our survey in 2021 of 576 family caregivers of people with dementia confirmed comparable prevalence in getting lost, revealing that there remains to be room to enhance on reducing the dangers of people with dementia getting misplaced in the neighborhood. While solely 12% of household caregivers would seek assist from pals and iTagPro Smart Tracker neighbours in 2007. In 2021, this had elevated to 21% of household caregivers searching for help from neighbours and safety guards in the residential areas.



Tracking devices and social media were not prevalent back in 2007. By contrast, nowadays, caregivers who would use monitoring gadgets (2.7%) and social media platforms (4.8%) to assist in searching. This may occasionally embrace Bluetooth tracking devices. When an individual with dementia gets misplaced, they're most more likely to be found within the streets in the course of the day with folks round. Neighborhoods might subsequently be a good supply of help, provided that they usually tend to be found within one hour, i.e. not far from the locations they get lost. In this regard, educating most people would help make folks aware of this issue. Family caregivers of people with dementia fear about what the future may hold, and whether or not their liked one might get lost. They clearly need to keep away from this at all prices. Thanks to know-how development, nowadays, family caregivers more and more use the GPS function on cell phones or iTagPro Product monitoring gadgets to search the lost folks with dementia, indicating a demand for the event of such know-how.



Thanks to the donation from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, Jockey Club Centre for Positing Ageing collaborated with The Hong Kong University of Science and iTagPro Smart Tracker Technology and iTagPro Smart Tracker St James Settlement to develop a tracking device using blue tooth and crowdsourcing machine learning know-how within the "Caring communities for dementia campaign". The tracking device "iBeacon" we developed has fast response and lengthy- distance monitoring up to 50m and is battery-saving with 1-yr battery life. It is designed in numerous varieties in order that it can be put right into a wallet or connected to a strolling keep on with decrease the resistance of people with dementia to carry the device. When a person with dementia is getting lost, his or her caregivers could activate the missing alert on the app installed on the caregiver’s mobile phone. And then the residents who've installed the monitoring app on their cell phones shall be notified to activate their Bluetooth for iBeacon looking and GPS for location sharing.