Los Angeles Working to Find Missing Older Adults With Help of Ankle Bracelets

A new Los Angeles program uses electronic monitoring bracelets to help find missing seniors who have been diagnosed with dementia or autism, reports Fox News . More than 250 Los Angeles residents have been given the devices since October, which have saved the lives of at least four missing people. The LA Found program was launched after Nancy Paulikas, a 55-year-old woman will Alzheimer's, died after wandering off from her husband during a visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2016. LA Found has seniors wear the bracelets voluntarily so they can be tracked with electronic receivers carried in the patrol cars and helicopters of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. University of California, Los Angeles Professor John Villasenor says the program's benefits outweigh the privacy issues associated with electronic monitoring. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 60 percent of people with dementia will wander at some point.