Hello, I am not a current RINO ownere or user, but I am considering buying a couple untis, for application for a medical situation: early/mid stage Alzheimers in my father. He is still living at home, with my mother as the primary caregiver. We would like to allow our father to continue his walks around the neighborhood -- frankly I think these are the most therapeutic and enjoyable moments of his daily routine -- but we are becoming increasingly worried that he will become what is known as a "Wanderer," a person who becomes disoriented and lost and wanderers off to parts unknown, and thus puts himself in physical danger (almost half of all Alzheimer wanderers not found int he first 24 hours are ultimately found dead). My father is still quite virile physically despite his mental deterioration, while my mother is mentally still sharp, but has physical ailments which limit her ability to accompany him on all his walks (as well as limited desire!)

What we are looking for is some kind of technical aid that, at the most ideal, would provide the following capabilities (in decreasing order of importance):

1) allow my mother to find out where my father is at any time, automatically without any action required on his part, most importantly to let her know whether he has strayed from any of his usual paths (which take him up to .5 mile away in a suburban residential area). Ease of gettign this information is important, would most prefer (but not absolutely require) that it be automatically gathered, not passively, and that it not require connecting to the internet to get it (this is what is necessary with the few GPS-enabled cell phones)

2) allow my mother to contact my father, and my father to have a simple enough way to respond that he can master (we could even tape instructions to the unit)

3) allow my father to contact my mother

4) To automatically notify my mother that my father has gone beyond a set distance from home (probably .5 mile)

5) To automatically warn my FATHER somehow that he's gone beyond a set distance from home (probably .5 mile)

6) To give my father a simple to understand indication of which way home is


The RINO units seem to have potential for this, if the daunting user interface issues can be overcome (my mother is mentally alert, but not very electronic-device savvy, e.g. she probably could not set up a VCR). I am thinking of a setup of a RINO 110 for my father, and a RINO 130 for my mom at home.

I'm thinking requiremtn #1 is satisfied by enabling postion reporting on my dad's 110, and automatic polling on my mom's 130. Questions: The 130 can be set to automatically poll my dad's position every 30 seconds and keep that polling information to display the history of his path, right? Assuming that I am understanding the 130 correctly -- can I get automatic with the 120 (or 110) too? Do I need to buy additional maps to give useful enough location information for my mom's display (they live inside the city limits of Madison Wisconsin)

Requirments #2 & #3 would be satisfied by the radio. Question: Do I assume correctly that GMRS at least is relaible within 1 mile in a 1-2 story building semi-large lot (buildings covering 20% of lot) residential area?

Requirmetns 4-6 are kind of "freebies" that I thought the RINOs could give me after reading about the proximity & alarm functions. The first requrimenets are the critical ones, but any comments about hwo well 4-6 would (or would not) work would be appreciated.

FYI what I am thinking about doing in order to simplify the UI for my dad's unit in particular is to set it up that my mom's unit is set at the destination, and that the navigator window, with arow pointing to location of my mom's unti (home) is set as the default page in the setup. Will these settings (in particular, the destination setting) remain set if the unit i powered off for up to a couple days? That would be ideal, because then not only does that eliminate having to set that stuff up every day, but I think I could even somehow cover up the thumbstick, etc. buttons on the front of his unit so it would be less confusing for him to use & there would be no danger of him changing screens/modes accidentally. I would then tape instructions onto the unit describing what buttons he should be pressing (i.e. "Press button on side to talk," "Arrow points to home" or something like that -- notes are very useful for alzheimer victims, and my father in particular).

I appreciate any and all feedback on the feasibility of this application, including recommendations if there are other solutions more appropriate to my needs. I know it may sound like real overkill to get RINO units to meet these simple needs, especially 1-3, but you would be surprised how difficutl it is to find a system specifically targetted to this need. If you are interested more in this need (and the lack of commercial products to meet it), here's a short paper that is very informative about the requirements and current commerical options -- or lack thereof:

Technology Applied to Address Difficulties of Alzheimer Patients and Their Partners

Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to give. Figuring out a good solution to this need will do a lot for my parents' happiness.

Mark Manville
Madison, WI
mmanville@ftml.net

Mark,

I don't have any information related to the RINO's and their uses, but one possibility of information that you could seek is to call/email Garmin and talk to them. No one would know their products better and they might even donate a couple units - you never know. Seems like the RINO's might be a good fit for this sort of application.

Hi - Just wnat ot give a quick update on this: I purchased a couple RINO units but was not able to get them to operate to my satisfaction, either in terms of performance (I started losign the position data feed ata bout a half mile, even using GMRS), or simplicity of user interface. I have moved on to evaluating other options.

Thanks Snake1411 for your help

I am a primary caregiver to my mom who is in stage 5 of Alzheimers. I wanted to suggest that you consider the "Safe Return" program that the Alzheimer's Association. There is a nominal charge, but what is so fabulous is that it's like having a medic alert on you, except that when you call the 1-800 number on the bracelet, (presumably because you are someone trying to help the patient who is lost or in distress) the Altz Assn. keeps contact information, medical information, a picture of the patient, and all sorts of stuff. I have my mom enrolled in this program. She is no where near well enough to go walking, but if she got lost, I know that she can be identified and help can find the right contact people.

I have also taken a flyer up to the local police department and let them know that should they ever have to go to her home or if they found her, that she wouldn't be able to help them to help her. They have her picture, medical information, contact information, etc. I laminated it to make sure it would last too.

I have no involvement with the Altz Assn nor do I benefit in any way from telling you all about this program. It's called "Safe Return" and my mom was easily persuaded to wear the medic-alert-type bracelet because I got one to wear myself. I put mine on, and she put her's on. (Mine says I'm a caregiver--though.) It's given me immeasurable peace of mind. I commend it to you. Alzheimer's Association