Project Lifesaver (PLS) is a program that uses radio-frequency technology to find seniors with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia who wander away and return them safely to their homes. See our flyer for contact information.

PLS works through free bracelets with special batteries that the seniors wear on their wrists. Should the senior become lost, specially trained and equipped police officers from Westchester County’s Department of Public Safety can locate them by tracking a radio signal the bracelets transmit.

The technology permits the seniors to often be found in hours.Without the technology, they might not be located for a day or more. 

Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano launched the program in August 2008. Within the first 10 months, the technology enabled the county police to find two missing seniors.

Shortly after the program began, the first missing senior was found two hours after she was reported missing from her home. Her relieved  family had signed her up for the program the week before.

Since the program began the county police had also been activated to look for two other missing seniors but they were found before the police began their search. As of late August – almost exactly a year after the program began, 53 seniors were wearing the bracelets. But there is room for many more seniors because 300 bracelets are available.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that as many as 22,000 Westchester residents who are 65 or older suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

To be eligible, seniors must be Westchester residents, dependent upon the person they live with and have a history of wandering. It is not open to seniors who live in nursing homes or similar facilities because such places have their own safeguards.

Project Lifesaver even helps seniors and their families if they go out of state. That happened when a woman from White Plains took her 90-year-old father, who wore a bracelet, to South Carolina.

During their visit, the father wandered away. Because South Carolina also participates in Project Lifesaver, the local police were able to pinpoint his location but the family found him before they arrived.

County Executive Spano said that the program benefits both the seniors and their family caregivers.

Not only does it enable the police to locate the missing senior faster, but it helps, he said, at least to some degree to lessen the anxiety of their family caregivers who often are understandably frantic about the safety of their loved ones.

“It’s hard enough for families and caregivers to cope with their loved ones having Alzheimer’s disease,” Spano said. “Their greatest nightmare is having them wander off and get lost - not knowing if they’ll ever see them again.

“We’ve all heard heart-breaking stories about someone who disappears and isn’t found for days or weeks,” he said. “This program is making it much easier to locate them and, at the same time, give caregivers some much needed peace of mind. This technology has the power to change lives.” 

To launch the program, the county’s Department of Senior Programs and Services (DSPS) and the Department of Public Safety partnered with the Hebrew Home at Riverdale and Project Lifesaver International, a non-profit organization that provides training and equipment and promotes the use of radio technology to track lost or missing persons.

Project  Lifesaver officials said the technology has been used successfully in more than 1,000 searches. On average, it takes 30 minutes to safely recover the person who is being sought.

At first glance, the searching process looks a little bizarre: A police officer walks slowly down the street holding out a rather primitive-looking wire contraption that looks like a large TV antenna. However, the equipment, which communicates using beep tones, actually uses very advanced technology to zero in on a person wearing one of the personalized bracelets. The bracelets can be located within a one-mile radius during a ground search. If  the searching device is used in a helicopter, the radius extends up to five miles.

“This technology will assist police officers in finding people in the timeliest way possible to return them safely to their homes and families,” said Police Commissioner Tom Belfiore. “Project Lifesaver is a great resource for caregivers and families that are coping with so much.”

The first senior to be fitted with a bracelet was a 76-year-old Yonkers woman with Alzheimer’s disease who had wandered off and was found the next day on the porch of a house in Tarrytown, 13 miles away.

She was dripping wet from the rain and was apparently just trying to find her way home. DSPS Commissioner Carpenter said that the department contacted the woman’s daughter and arranged for her mother to receive a bracelet.

The daughter, Christine Chestnut, had been distraught during the 30 hours until she received word that her mother was found. “I still can’t sleep at night but I do feel better knowing that if it does happen again she would be found more quickly and I wouldn’t be left wondering where she is,” Chestnut said.

DSPS Commissioner Mae Carpenter said she is delighted that the program is in operation and giving relief to the caregivers who can be easily overwhelmed by their 24-hour-a-day responsibilities. Carpenter noted that people 85 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the county’s senior population.

“As our population ages, the number who will experience some form of dementia will also increase,” she said. Carpenter added that Project Lifesaver also increases recognition of Westchester as a “Livable Community” where seniors can continue to live in their homes and communities as they age.

The ElderServe Safe Center for Seniors, part of the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, administers the program.

“We are delighted to partner with Westchester County on this vitally important program,” said Daniel Reingold, president and chief executive of the Hebrew Home. “Project Lifesaver will make an enormous  improvement in the lives of the many families caring for elderly relatives who suffer from dementia.

The initial cost for training and equipment is $54,440. An additional $25,000 federal grant pays for Hebrew Home’s administration of the program.

Once the caregiver applies, the prospective candidate is interviewed. Their pictures are taken and information is collected for a personal profile. Typical questions would be about their likes and dislikes, the language they speak, their nickname, if they wear eyeglasses, use a hearing aid or cane or have distinguishing features, such as a limp.

If deemed appropriate for the program, the client gets a wrist bracelet with a small battery-operated transmitter that emits an automatic tracking signal every second. Clients are assigned a specific radio frequency that can be used to track them in an emergency and the caregiver is given a card that contains the frequency code. The county police maintain a database of all Project Lifesaver clients, their frequency code and other identifying information, including the photograph.

Caregivers are required to check the bracelet’s battery every day to ensure it is working. Every 30 days, staff from ElderServe will change the band and battery at various adult day care centers in the county. Should a client wander away, here is what would happen:

• The caregiver would contact the local police department, which begins an immediate search.
• The local police would contact the county police, which would deploy specially trained officers and tracking equipment to the area where the missing person was last seen.
• The frequency assigned to the bracelet of the missing person would be entered into a hand-held device that is connected to a radio antenna. Officers on the ground would begin tracking the radio signal in the effort to locate the person.
• The county police helicopter could also be deployed to assist in the search. The transmitter in the wrist bracelet can be tracked from the air for a radius of six to seven miles.

Caregivers who are interested in obtaining bracelets should call Melody Keel at the ElderServe Safe Center for Seniors at (914) 368-5506 or send an e-mail to mkeel@hebrewhome.org.