CaregiverNet: A novel social support intervention for locating and securing wandering Alzheimer´s patients as soon as possible

Locating and securing an Alzheimer´s patient who is outdoors and in wandering state is crucial to patient´s safety. Although advances in geotracking and mobile technology have made locating patients instantly possible, reaching them while in wandering state may take time. However, a social network of caregivers may help shorten the time that it takes to reach and secure a wandering AD patient. This study proposes a new type of intervention based on novel mobile application architecture to form and direct a social support network of caregivers for locating and securing wandering patients as soon as possible. System employs, aside from the conventional tracking mechanism, a wandering detection mechanism, both of which operates through a tracking device installed a Subscriber Identity Module for Global System for Mobile Communications Network(GSM). System components are being implemented using Java. Family caregivers will be interviewed prior to and after the use of the system and Center For Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire and Zarit Burden Interview will be applied to them during these interviews to find out the impact of the system in terms of depression, anxiety and burden, respectively.