Westchester Adopts LifeSaver Program

October 2008

Project Lifesaver - a program that uses radio-frequency technology to find seniors with Alzheimer’s disease who wander from their homes - is available to communities across the country; among them Westchester County, NY.

Through Project Lifesaver, eligible seniors are fitted with bracelets with special batteries. Should they wander away from their homes, specifically trained and equipped police from Westchester County’s Department of Public Safety can find them using radio signals that the bracelets transmit.

County Executive Andy Spano launched Project Lifesaver in August. Project Lifesaver found one senior who had been reported missing – a woman with Alzheimer’s, who had wandered away from her home in September.  Fortunately, she had been fitted for a bracelet just the week before, and the county police were able to find her a half-mile from her home in about two hours. Without the bracelets, that search could have taken much longer – possibly days.  Spano said that Project Lifesaver is essential to ensure the safety of seniors and to try to give some peace of mind to their families. .

“When seniors wander off their families suffer horrible stress and anxiety,” Spano said. “They worry that they may be harmed or that they may never see them again. Ideally, Project Lifesaver gives them a bit of confidence that their nightmares will not come true.”

DSPS Commissioner Mae Carpenter said it is good that the county can offer these bracelets at this time.

“The population is rapidly aging so these bracelets are essential,” Carpenter said. “The need for them will only increase in coming years as the number of adults who experience some form of dementia continues to grow.”  

The bracelets are free to the first 100 clients in the program.  Additional participants will pay an initial fee of $385 - $300 for the bracelet and $85 for the first year of battery changes. The fee is waived or paid on a sliding scale basis for low-income seniors.

For more information about Project Lifesaver, contact Nancy D’Auria of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale, which administers the program.  D’Auria, the project coordinator, can be reached at (914) 368-5506 or at ndauria@hebrewhome.org.

For more information on another communities use of the LifeSaver Project: http://www.trsar.org/project_lifesaver/proj_lifesaver.htm
For funding opportunities for a project in your community: http://www.projectlifesaverfoundation.org/index2.cfm