Resources and caring people fill this wonderful community of ours. This week, we wanted to highlight one of these resources which can literally save lives.
Like many news agencies, part of our job is to capture and report on breaking news. This past week, we heard two pages for an emergency service that has been infrequently used. They were pages for Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency’s (EMA) Project Lifesaver.
According to the agency’s website, lincolncountyema.net/project-lifesaver, this program serves the needs of children and adults with autism, Down syndrome, or a cognitive impairment, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, that may cause them to chronically wander and not find their way back home.
These clients wear a wrist or ankle band that emits a silent radio frequency which can be used to track the individual if they were to wander off and go missing.
Tracking and locating is performed by specially trained emergency management personnel with the use of state-of-the-art locating equipment. To date, Project Lifesaver has a 100 percent success rate in locating wandering children and adults and returning them home safely.
This week’s two calls for different individuals are thankfully rare, but bring to light this important program.
Lincoln County EMA shared some details about one of the calls through a Facebook post. The post stated that a call was received around 2:30 p.m. for a project lifesaver client and read, “The subject was last seen in his home near the waterfront area. The care person for the subject said there was a conversation about our subject being hungry after just eating lunch. While the caretaker was helping a neighbor out back, our subject walked off.”
It continued, “the EMA office was notified of the missing subject. As we were in route to the subject’s last know location our equipment picked up a beacon next to the Hannaford in Boothbay Harbor … As we headed into Hannaford following the signal we were greeted with our missing subject ice cream in hand. The total time from the notification of the missing subject to the time the person was reunited with their loved one was 40 minutes.”
[EW1] The time to find and locate the client as well as a minimal number of searchers that were required to perform this search speaks volumes to the efficiency of this program, and the great benefit for the families of those who have a tendency to wander off.
The program in Lincoln County started in the fall of 2018 when a $5,000 donation from the Steven and Tabitha King Foundation was put to use to purchase the necessary equipment for Lincoln County EMA to start the program.
The program continues today and is funded primarily through individual or corporate donations and grants. The cost for EMA is about $300 per client per year, and is provided at little to no cost to the client/care giver once they are approved into the program.
An initial visit to put on the wrist or ankle band by an EMA staff member is performed, followed by a visit every 60 days to replace the transmitter battery and band as needed.
With many potential clients in the community, and a proven track record, we hope that any family member or care giver who may benefit from this program reach out to the EMA office to find out more information.
This program is only effective to find loved ones if they are signed up as a client and equipped with the radio transmitter.
