The tragedy of one local senior and her family has lead to the act of making sure it doesn’t happen again.
Project Lifesaver Simcoe was launched today at the city hall rotunda before police and many dignitaries. The campaign is geared towards those who have a history of wandering from their familiar surroundings, such as 72-year-old Mandy Thompson did last year due to her dementia. On a cold February 2017 day, Thompson left her Barrie home and despite many efforts from family, police and concerned residents, Thompson’s body wasn’t located until March of this year at an Oro-Medonte golf course. Sgt. Jason Frye of the Barrie Police Tactical Force Unit was on-hand to demonstrate the new equipment and explained just how effective Project Lifesaver Simcoe will be to the region.
“The transmitter itself emits a signal that’s good for approximately one mile and the antenna on top of the unit is good for 1.6 kilometres,” said Frye. “We also have a device that extends that antenna out to the one mile so it will be very efficient we feel in preventing more wandering cases ending tragically. From what I understand these will be on a demand basis and we have access to lots of transmitters once people get signed up. We have eight members of our service that are currently trained and we will roll the training out to all of our emergency services unit, which currently sits at 35 people; so we’ll have close to 50 people trained in the usage of this equipment.”
The device is worn like a bracelet and emits a signal that can be heard by receivers used by the Barrie Police. The device is multi-useful as it can be attached to a vehicle, drone or carried on foot. Similar devices have been used elsewhere and cut location times to hours and in some cases minutes. Kris Hughston from Hughston Life Solutions is a co-founder of Project Lifesaver Simcoe and knows that this was needed for the community but says it also hit her personally when she heard of the Thompson case.
“The thought was that there has got to be something out there that we can bring here for seniors who are vulnerable and prone to wandering,” said Hughston. “The Mandy Thompson case was a very tragic and it really did hit home to me as my father has dementia and fortunately for he and my family he is in a long-term care facility. That said, last summer he did go off on his own and I’m telling you, your heart drops and it’s just a really difficult time so I can’t even imagine what the Thompson family went through and still is with grieving. I will say too that the Thompsons have been very supportive of this and we thank them.”
For more information, visit here, call Project Lifesaver Simcoe at 1-249-888-0249 or email [email protected].
