Project Lifesavers wristband helps locate missing senior in Madoc Village

An 83-year-old senior from Madoc Village went missing Tuesday evening and was found in an hour, thanks to a Project Lifesaver wristband.

Central Hastings OPP received a call around 5 p.m. Monday evening, for a missing lady who lives in a seniors home in Madoc Village.  The senior, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, has wandered away from her home in the past.

This time, though, she was in safer hands thanks to a wristband released by the Alzheimer Society in eastern Ontario.

The wristband emits a radio frequency that is picked up by a receiver within a two-kilometre radius.  The band is designed to help prevent individuals with cognitive disabilities — such as Alzheimer’s, dementia and autism — from going missing.

Const. Lisa Robson, a community safety officer with Central Hastings OPP, was one of the officers involved in locating the Madoc woman.

“Most people who wander within 24 hours have a higher risk of getting injured or even death,” Robson said. “This particular person went not far from home, but where she went was into the woods.  And when our officers found her she was laying in dense bush and even they said if they had just been walking around they still wouldn’t have located her.”

“So this tool is something that is really important to our community,” said Robson.

For Central Hastings OPP, who got on board with Project Lifesaver in November of last year, this was their first time using it.

“Nobody wants to know that their loved one is out there alone, cold, in the bush, or a lot of times, maybe in a ditch.  And if we can get to them faster, then this is a great tool,” Robson said.

The program was launched as a pilot project in Belleville in 2015.  After proving its success, Project Lifesaver is now permanently in place.