4 tips for caregivers of people with dementia who may wander

Wandering away from home is common for those with dementia, experts say.

"The urge to look for something that is familiar gets heightened," says Theresa Dewey, who counsels families affected by the disease and develops programming for the Alzheimer's Association's Illinois chapter. "You're going to want to latch on to anything that feels familiar. Unfortunately, the things that are going to be familiar are probably from the distant past and might not even exist anymore."

The association and police say caregivers can take some steps to keep their loved ones from getting lost:

• Provide structure during the day. Adult day programs not only let patients be social, but ease anxiety.

• Conceal doors with curtains. Patients with a compromised short-term memory may routinely see an exit as a "novel stimulus," so the association also recommends putting locks up high or down low and "out of sight," Dewey said.

• Have a plan about driving early after a diagnosis, when patients can have input and feel empowered about compromises: driving only during the day, to familiar places or with a navigator in the passenger seat. "We recognize it's not going to be a one-time conversation," Dewey said.

• Several products help police or caregivers track a patient who does go missing. In Naperville, police have outfitted more than two dozen residents faced with memory disorders, autism and Down syndrome with a free, waterproof and battery-powered transmitter they wear on their wrist or ankle. If they get lost, officers visit their last known location and try to pick up a signal unique to each user, says Debbie Hansen, the department's crime prevention specialist and coordinator of the Fastrack program. With a radio receiver, police are able to dial into the frequency up to three miles away in the air and one mile away on the ground. The stronger the signal, the closer police are to the missing person.