Thursday, October 29, 2009

Alzheimer's Association's new Comfort Zone program for finding the lost


The Alzheimer's Association has a new GPS-based program to help find dementia patients who wander.  It seems like an upgrade to the Safe Return program, which I purchased for my dad.  (I still have his bracelet--I don't know why I wanted it.)
Rather than try to explain it, here's what they sent me:

The Alzheimer's Association Comfort Zone™, powered by Omnilink, is the first comprehensive location management system designed specifically for Alzheimer’s, giving people with the disease more freedom and independence in their community while providing their family some peace of mind.  Comfort Zone is a Web-based application that works with various location devices throughout the progression of the disease to proactively communicate the location of the person with Alzheimer’s within two to 30 minutes.  Comfort Zone also offers families assistance with 24/7 monitoring center services and access to emergency health records from the MedicAlert Foundation.

The price of the Comfort Zone service packages varies, beginning at $42.99 a month with a $45.00 activation fee, similar to most cell phone services.  For more information about Comfort Zone please see the attached press release and fact sheets.  You can also visit the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org/comfortzone
At first I was like, $42 a month!  The bracelet I bought my dad was a 1-time $45 fee!  (I think that's changed now, to a per year fee, but I could be wrong.)  Then I reread the most important phrase:
communicate the location of the person with Alzheimer’s within two to 30 minutes
No driving around aimlessly.  No having squadrons of police offices searching.   It doesn't matter if it's dark or cold, GPS will find your loved one.  If that's not worth $42 a month, I don't know what is.  I only had to search for my dad twice--and yes, it was dark and cold one of those time--and while I was driving around, my cell phone illegally in hand, I would have paid any amount of money to just find my dad safe.

(Image from the Comfort Zone web site.)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Alzheimer's clinical trial in Pennsylvania

This study will evaluate an investigational medication for behavior and personality changes in people with Alzheimer's disease.
The research site is in Norristown, Penn.
 http://www.clinicalconnection.com/clinical_trials/condition/alzheimers_disease.aspx.