I left Bill in Mass on Easter Sunday because I was sick and I am allergic to lilies. There were at least 200 lilies in church. It was beautiful. I said, "Are you sure you will be alright" "Yes, I'll be OK." I assumed he would be. He has gone to Mass every Sunday for 78 years. He left the church in the middle of Mass and couldn't find me so he decided to run home on a 4 lane highway. He ran for over a mile until he fell, hit his head and ended up airlifted as a John Doe to a Shock Trauma center two hours away from home. I didn't know where he was and ended up driving for about 4 hours searching for him on Easter Sunday. The moral of the story is to get a Medic Alert Bracelet for Alzheimer's patients. It has a trick catch so they can't get it off. He threw away the first one I got for him. The Medic Alert is on a national registry so he can be found and the next of kin can be called right away. Now he is in the hospital with a concussion and I am sure he has lost about a year of time. He knew me until today. He called me his sister's name and he was hallucinating and grabbing things in the air. Don't let this happen to your loved one. I am so sick that now I am going to have to put him in Rehab and pray he gets well enough to come home!
If you think about it, this is our chance between the caregiver and the person we're caring for to have a little break from each other. In fact, to make it totally separate, Mom is now using the senior ride service so there is no separation issue when I drop her off as I'm no longer dropping her off. She's terrified of missing her ride, so I do wait by the door with her for it and watch for it with her, but that's still not too bad for us.
My mother only has mild memory loss but immediately forgot most of her session. The director of the center and I were glad to see Mom and another female patient become fast friends. But when I picked Mom up to drive her home, she didn't remember her new friend nor any of the activities. She just remembered it was all pretty "silly" and pointless. Seriously, I saw it with my own eyes how she lit-up at making a new friend but she didn't remember any part of it afterwards. So, it's just something to keep in-mind.
Thus far their monitoring has been excellent. The cost is $40/month. I know there are other services that are cheaper, but I wasn't impressed with them when I called them.
If you could afford it, you could get an alert system for your father as a gift, but the question would be whether he would wear it. My father didn't wear his consistently for the first week or so, but now he does. It's well worth the cost.
I wish my parents would sign up for some type of medic alert. With Dad out in the yard and if he should fall and Mom doesn't realize it, and someone drives by and sees Dad. At least if 911 is called the EMT would know who he is, if Dad can't talk for whatever reason..... but my parents don't want to spend the money.... [sigh]
What I mean is this: if Mom is tired and wants to sit down, I sit with her, now. I used to tell her to relax and that I'd continue to shop a little and be right back. She has no sense of time, worries about me after a few minutes, and comes to look for me. Then, she's totally lost and frustrated and I come back not to find her where I left her.
So, when she's tired, we both sit down, now. If I have lots of errands, or errands in big stores, I leave her behind with my husband and, if you have someone that visits that would sit with him while you're getting a lot done with shopping and things, that's something to consider, rather than having him along for all of it.
Lowe's is big into home alarms and also personal safety, like for people who fall, as one example. Amazon has a lot, too. There are alarm systems that are now completely wireless that you can install, yourself. You can put the main unit in your bedroom or kitchen or wherever you most want it, and can add some limited number of controls to it. You just have to attach them to the wall, but there's no wiring to do. I can't remember, but I think the base unit was under $100, then each addition was less than $100, if I remember, some much less than that.
Unfortunately, the motion detectors had too wide a range and they wouldn't have worked in the areas I need to put them, but I'll mention that as something to consider. In my case, my upstairs hallway, where Mom's bedroom is at, is next to the front door. If I put a motion sensor there, it would trigger every time she goes back to her room for something. I'm just giving that as one example of the types of issues to consider if you look at some of these things.
travel alarm for hotel room
I do see some in Amazon, some of which help will qualify for the free $35-or-over shipping, if you have other things to buy, too. Here's just one example:
amazon/Belle-Hop-Travel-Alarm-Flashlight/dp/B000SKZM0A/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398367185&sr=8-2&keywords=travel+hotel+alarm
You'll also see the door stop style door alarm. We thought about that style but figured Mom is smart enough to just kick that one aside. With this one that I'm talking about, it takes a little dexterity to work it.
It has tips like taking their pictures, every six months, with smiles/not smiles, favorite clothes, etc... One thing I've found useful is those travel alarms for your hotel room door. It works great as a front door alarm, as my bedroom is close-enough for that to work.
The first time is happens, it's shock. Then, they seem fine and you think it won't happen, again. In my Mom's case, it has not yet happened, again, but people tell me it's usually just a matter of time until incident #2.
One thing to check on is whether your local police department has been trained in this. The officers that brought my wandering mom back seemed to have done this, before, and by their patience and attitude, it seems they must have been through this training.
One thing I've been told and read in some of the books on wandering, is that if the person doesn't see their caregiver, they might forget what's going on, focus on the missing caregiver, panic, and wander off. Also, people can go out their front door and forget where they just came from - they can get lost in their own front yard and start wandering aimlessly to find their home, sometimes ending miles away.