GPS bracelets considered for Alzheimer patients
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 | 11:47 AM ET
CBC News
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Montreal authorities are considering a GPS bracelet project to help track people suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The city's police force is studying the tracking technology as a potentially valuable tool for missing person searches.
"Intervening quickly, particularly in the winter, would help us find people fast," if they could be located with the help of a global positioning system, said Daniel Rousseau, community strategies manager for Montreal Police.
Police are studying the bracelet technology because it is commonly used with Alzheimer's patients in France and Spain.
The bracelets present some privacy concerns, according to geriatric specialists.
But police say they could save lives.
Last week, Maria Serrano, a 73-year-old Montreal woman with Alzheimer's, was found dead in a snowbank, two days after she wandered off from her apartment.
Police spent 48 hours looking for Serrano before they found her body, near the Blue Bonnets racetrack in Montreal's west end.
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