A dementia patient wandering off from Dunedin hospital this week and the overnight disappearance of an Alexandra man with Alzheimer's last week shows more must be done to watch out for people at risk of wandering off, Alzheimer's Society Otago manager Julie Butler says.
Easier tracking of wanderers would be possible if WandaTrak, a radio tracking system where people at risk of getting lost wear trackable pendants, was expanded from Oamaru to the rest of Otago, she said.
The system, implemented in Oamaru in April 2012, had proven useful, Mrs Butler said.
It was ''of particular importance'' to have something in rural areas to prevent situations like that of the Alexandra man, who was found near Jacob's Ladder in Lawrence last week, having spent a night in his car, she said.
Alzheimer's Society Otago had contacted Land Search and Rescue and the Red Cross about expanding WandaTrak, she said.
New Zealand Search and Rescue secretariat manager Duncan Ferner said a NZSAR and LandSAR project was under way across the country to reduce the number of people getting lost.
The project, called WanderSearch, aimed to help local and regional groups prevent at-risk people from wandering off.
NZSAR were looking into a ''variety of technologies'' to enable people to be more easily monitored as part of that, he said.
''We know that more and more people are becoming lost due to some form of cognitive impairment.
''Information does need to flow if a person has the potential to wander.''
NZSAR and LandSAR aim to have the project established by the end of next year.
