Cheongju Sangdang Police Station launched the monitoring system, in which dementia sufferers with their families’ consent are fitted with GPS locaters, in October 2014.(image:Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — A police station in the city of Cheongju is reaping positive results from the implementation of a program to track dementia sufferers using GPS. Cheongju Sangdang Police Station launched the monitoring system, in which dementia sufferers with their families’ consent are fitted with GPS locaters, in October 2014.
Combined with Korea’s universal identification database, the system has proven to be a success, as Sangdang Police located four missing dementia sufferers immediately after filing missing-person reports, and brought them back to their families.
Although Korean local governing bodies have been promoting the use of GPS locaters on dementia patients, some families with are still uninformed about the technology due to the lack of an active advocacy. However, Sangdang police have started to actively promote the program, and 22 dementia patients in the district are now fitted with GPS locaters.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of missing dementia patients in 2013 was 7,983, which rose 40.7 percent from 5,673 in 2009.
By M.H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
