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Last summer, an elderly woman in Brookline, Mass. disappeared overnight. When she was found, the 60-year-old resident was wandering in her bathrobe and slippers in a front yard 6 miles away in neighboring West Roxbury. Incidents like this one have helped spark the Brookline Homesafe Program, a new initiative by area police which will make it easier to find residents with Alzheimer's or dementia who have become separated from their families.
For $30 a month, residents receive a GPS bracelet that can be tracked remotely. Families can give the bracelets to elderly relatives who might wander off. If the wearer is reported missing, the police can use the GPS signal to track down his or her location.
The same bracelets are already in use in Boston and city officials expect several hundred people in Brookline will take part in the program. A $20,000 funding grant will allow residents who can't afford the bracelets to obtain them for free.