COLUMBIA --
Herb Griggs began to question if his wife Ilse of 65 years had Alzheimer's after an incident several years ago.
"She was supposed to follow me home," Herb said. "But I turned the corner and she didn't get the corner turned fast enough and lost sight of me. She got on the wrong road and traveled 40 miles."
Ilse was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years later.
Soon after, Herb bought "MedicAlert Safe Return" IDs for them both, just in case Ilse wandered away from home like six out of 10 Alzheimer's patients do.
Here's how the MedicAlert program works.
"A 24-hour, nationwide databaset that holds all of their contact information and their medical information so that in case of a wandering emergency, we can launch our system and try to help locate that person more effectively," mid-Missouri chapter of the Alzheimer Association's Ashley Burden said.
There's another more tech-savvy option is "Comfort Zone."
Loved ones with memory loss have a GPS locator put in the cell phone or a watch that is synched up with an online map.
"The caregivers can make web-based inquiries and then receive updates on their loved one's location," Burden said.
Caregivers can also set up a zone or boundary for their loved one.
"And as soon as that person leaves the zone, whether the zone is the neighborhood or the city, then the caregiver gets an alert," Burden said.
Thankfully, Herb and Ilse never had to put their MedicAlert subscription to work.
"She never wandered away but if she ever had, we had the tools in place to take care of it," Herb said.
Alzheimer's Association officials said you can make more simple changes at home to protect your loved ones with memory loss: put door alarms or locks in place and out of your loved ones' reach.
Follow the link below to find out more information about both the MedicAlert and Comfort Zone programs. You can also see the other tools and resources offered by the mid-Missouri chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.
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