By Lindsey Erin Kroskob
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Laramie County is implementing a program to get lost people back home safely.
Project Lifesaver is a nationwide program that provides traceable bracelets to people of “diminished capacity.” Local first-responders are trained on the system and use a radio transmitter to trace the bracelets’ frequency.
“I don’t think there is anybody in this room that doesn’t have a family member or a friend of a family member that has somebody that may have diminished capacity of some sort,” Laramie County Sheriff’s Department detective Donnie Heiduck said Thursday. “Sometimes they can’t help themselves to get home. We have to be able to do that for them.”
The $6,000 program was implemented locally with a grant through Project Lifesaver. Each bracelet costs $300, and Heiduck and his partner, Cheyenne police officer Rebecca Gerrard, have been working to raise money for the program.
They’ve raised about $10,000 to date in the hopes that eventually the program will be self-sufficient and the bracelets provided at no cost.
“It covers the whole span of age groups — anything from children to the elderly. Even people with traumatic brain injuries,” Heiduck said.
Sheriff Danny Glick said the fear of having a community member wander off hits close to home because of the incident with an elderly man wandering out of his assisted-living center and dying of exposure to harsh weather last winter.
“First-responders across this room are called in many instances to deal with these people when they’ve walked away, lost their way or their families can’t find them,” Glick said. “We’ve suffered those issues here locally, and I think now we finally have an answer for this.”
Heiduck said he hopes this program also allows caregivers more freedom in their everyday lives, allowing them to do things without worry.
Many times people of diminished capacity are homebound, and caregivers worry about taking them out or on vacations.
The program allows caregivers to call search-and-rescue departments around the nation and give them the bracelet frequency, so if something happens they’ll be found quickly.
“It gives them the peace of mind that they can live their life with the person of diminished capacity and still do the same things that anybody else does,” he said.
Gerrard said the program has a 100 percent success rate, and recovery times are usually less than 30 minutes, with no serious injury or death.
She will be the primary administrator overseeing the program once responders are trained in mid-January. Five people from the sheriff’s department, police department and the Wyoming Mounted Search and Rescue will be trained on the equipment initially, with expansion throughout the year.
Copyright 2010 Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc.