Mr Anthony Lim, 54, spotted an elderly woman looking lost and disoriented.
He recalled having seen the same 83-year-old woman about three hours earlier at the lift lobby of his Sengkang Housing Board block when he returned home from work.
But he also remembered her because of a notification from the Dementia Friends app, which had a picture of the same woman. Her family had sent an alert that the dementia patient had gone missing.
The woman was reunited with her family, less than 10 hours after she had wandered off. She usually lives with her children in Yishun but was staying with one of them in Sengkang when she went missing.
Her granddaughter, 24, who declined to be named, said her grandmother is growing more forgetful.
While on Facebook to rope in more people to look for her, the granddaughter came across the Dementia Friends app – which she now describes as a “really good initiative”.
Since the free Dementia Friends app was launched in October last year (2018), over 4,100 people have downloaded it, said Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, in Parliament earlier this month.
The app allows families of a missing person with dementia to send an alert, with the missing person’s picture, personal particulars and place where he or she was last seen.
It was developed by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), Nanyang Polytechnic and the Integrated Health Information Systems, which runs the information technology systems of all public healthcare institutions here. Over 50 people, aged between 50 and 90, who were reported lost have been assisted so far, thanks to the app.
Mr Jason Foo, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, said the association has received feedback from some caregivers that the app is useful and informative.
Mr Lim said: “It’s good for more people to know of the Dementia Friends app so that more will look out for those with dementia.”
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 19 March 2019