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GROUND SAR
New Alzheimer patient profiles help New Brunswick
SAR to find wanderers
by Andrea Fournier
When Gordon Friars was called to find a missing person who wandered from
her home, he immediately went to speak to her family.
Through his questioning, he found out she suffered from Alzheimer disease
and, in her mind, it was decades earlier.
Friars probed more to find out what her childhood was like, where it was
and what kind of things she did.
He found his clue, gathered his team and began their search. It didn't
take long to find the woman; she was by the lake not far from her home.
She had grown up by a lake and that is where she felt safe.
"Typically an Alzheimer patient lives in the past," said Friars,
President of the New Brunswick Ground Search and Rescue Team (NBGSAR).
"We talk to the family or caregivers to find out what decade they
are living in and what types of things they did back then."
The NBGSAR team knows how difficult these situations can be. Averaging
about 38 searches a year, almost half of their searches are for people
with cognitive impairments.
The Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick is teaming up with the RCMP and
NBGSAR to establish guidelines for finding lost patients.
A program called Search is an Emergency, created by the Alzheimer Society
of Canada in 2004, aims to create a profile of persons at risk for wandering.
The profile would include information on their description, health, wandering
history and use of aids for walking, hearing or vision.
Friars says this type of information is vitally important.
"It makes us aware of the behaviour patterns. Without it, we would
arrive on scene, talk to people, and find out the last place seen, but
now we better apply our resources with this new information."
Alzheimer disease symptoms include loss of memory, judgment and reasoning,
as well as changes in mood and behaviour.
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Another program in which families can participate is the Safely Home
Registry, also run by the Alzheimer Society of Canada. People at risk
for wandering are outfitted with ID bracelets and identification cards
with their personal information stored in a police database. When a person
who wandered is found, police use the bracelet registration number to
access the information and contact the family or care centre.
Dick Isabelle, Executive Director of Police, Fire and Emergency Services
in New Brunswick, says the police services in New Brunswick understand
the great risk of Alzheimer-affected people wandering from their homes.
"These registry programs have proven their value in a significant
number of lost person incidents. Any measures that lead to even more rapid
results in returning these people to their homes are definitely supported
by us," he said.
"We're very pleased to see the emerging partnership between the NBGSAR
team and the Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick. We will work to ensure
that the policing community is also integrated with their efforts."
Andrea Fournier was a co-op student at the National Search and Rescue
Secretariat in spring 2006.
Photo courtesy of the Alzheimer Society of Canada
Reducing the risk with GPS
by Bill Steer
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is no longer just for hikers,
the military and land surveyors.
 It
is a user-friendly technology now being applied for multiple purposes
in the first response, tourism, natural resource, education and utility
sectors. It is a tool for safety preparedness, reducing risk with cost
effective solutions. Utilizing GPS should be part of all training and
emergency plans.
GPS is showing up in many places. It is in your car, within safety beacons,
on the golf cart, on bracelets attached to lawbreakers and available to
parents for their children in wristwatch form. Police would like to have
GPS bracelets attached to Alzheimer patients, bringing relief to loved
ones while saving time and money needed for searches.
GPS, using satellite tracking, identifies a spatial location, a point
of intersection from imaginary lines on the earth's surface. GPS satellites
have atomic clocks built-in, so time, distance and location measurements
become extremely accurate. Postal codes, addresses and telephone numbers
are becoming geo-referenced with GPS co-ordinates.
It is important to understand the relationship between the map, the compass
and the GPS unit. The handheld GPS unit can do so much with a little understanding
of the basics of navigation.
Why use a GPS?
GPS units work with satellite, VHF radios and various communication systems.
It may not be long until the cell phone has GPS capabilities linked to
the E-911 (Enhanced 911) program now being developed. The ability to identify
and communicate a specific location is upon us.
The following scenarios illustrate how a GPS unit could help in the development
of public and personal safety measures.
- You are a police constable, first on the scene, summoned to find a
missing person in a remote rural section of an unorganized township.
The rest of the hunting party does not know where their friend was last
seen. You are about to radio your GPS location to the communication
centre and make preparations to start a search…
- As a volunteer fire fighter you receive a message from a provincial
fire crew about a fire which is spreading in a remote section of the
municipality. The location has been transmitted to your pager and you
are now headed to the location to help. You occasionally check your
GPS unit for location…
- As a boater, on an inland waterway, you view a capsized boat in the
distance. The visible shoreline is more than one kilometre away and
the wind is increasing the wave action. Using your VHF radio, you are
about to contact an emergency contact number and transmit the location
with your GPS unit…
- After a day of fishing, your truck will not start. Although you are
not far off the Trans Canada Highway on a tertiary logging road, it
is on an isolated section of highway. There are countless roads in the
area, but luckily, the cell phone works, you packed your GPS unit and
you are just about to describe your location…
- You are sailing off the coast and you hit an uncharted shoal. The
damage is significant and the water coming through the hull is steady
- faster than your pumps can handle. You reach for the handset to radio
the latitude and longitude of your position from the GPS unit to the
Coast Guard…
- The local emergency plan identified safe locations in case of a natural
disaster. An ambulance needs to be dispatched to one of the safe locations
but the main road is blocked. Your GPS unit has stored different routes
to access the location. You are about to relay the series of new coordinates
to the dispatcher…
- The coroner at the inquest for the recent tragedy asked if there were
standards for communicating spatial information and if all personnel
were trained with GPS…
There are countless other scenarios.
The Challenge
Were you lost when you left the retail store with your GPS unit, or, worse,
when you received the one you ordered on-line? Most people are when they
take the GPS unit out of the box. It is a too common occurrence: a person
turns on the unit and wonders about those numbers displayed on the screen.
 What
was missing? What about directions and information about the settings
on your GPS unit? Do you have your map and compass? Yes, you will need
these too.
It is true, the on-board GPS unit in your car can bring you to your destination
and the manufacturer's roadside assistance program knows where you are
stranded. But what if you have to interact with the GPS?
There is more to basic navigation than relying on the unit. Organizations
and individuals should be made aware and educated about the relationship
between the map, the compass and the GPS unit.
An introductory or certified GPS course will help. Anyone using a GPS
unit should be able to identify and describe a location with some details.
Like CPR and First Aid, GPS training will help. It is an inexpensive technology
that requires some basic knowledge and a few skills. Be safer!
Mr. Steer is Director of the National Green Check GPS Certification
Program and is a thematic map maker.
Photos by Joël Campbell
Canine technology for search and rescue around the
corner
by Andrea Fournier
The Ontario Provincial Police Emergency Response Team (PERT) and Ryerson
University are working together to create a head-mounted camera for police
search and rescue dogs.
Canine Augmentation Technology (CAT) project, lead by Alex Ferworn, professor
in charge of the Network-Centric Applied Research Team (N-CART), involves
mounting a small camera to the head of a canine trained in search and
rescue. The camera will transmit video and sound feed back to the dog's
handler.
Dogs will be outfitted with a camera, microphone, GPS and headset. N-CART
is working on integrating all the components to a mobile computer which
the office will handle.
Similar technology has been used in other countries. The U.S. National
Institute of Justice used a camera attached to a collar, but it proved
unstable. Police dogs in the United Kingdom use head-mounted cameras for
evidence gathering in firearm situations.
"The project's goals are to allow a handler to see what the dog sees,
hear what the dog hears, know where the dog is and be able to communicate
with the dog over a greater distance or in difficult environments, such
as rubble piles and collapsed structures," said Prof. Ferworn.
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| OPP Constable Kevin Barnum and his
dog Dare are working with Ryerson University on head-mounted cameras
for search and rescue. Photo provided by Constable Barnum. |
PERT member Constable Kevin Barnum, and his dog Dare, a four year-old
black lab, are testing the CAT project.
Const. Barnum says the project is important because of the need for safety
for both the dogs and the crew.
Prof. Ferworn emphasizes that many things have to be taken into consideration
because of the police working environment. For example, the dogs must
not get stuck, the equipment must be robust, easy to use and safe, and
the officer must not be encumbered.
Ryerson colleague Lucia Dell'Agnese, director of fashion design, is assisting
Prof. Ferworn by designing the harness to carry the camera. The prototype
will fit different size dogs, have a tear-away safety feature and be lightweight.
A prototype is currently being used and N-CART is running video trials
to obtain the most stable transmission possible, given the unstable nature
of moving dogs. The next phase will be to find funding to purchase equipment
and pay researchers.
"In order to test the system effectively we must expose it to realistic
operating environments. This will take time and research support,"
added Prof. Ferworn.
Andrea Fournier was a co-op student at the National Search and Rescue
Secretariat in spring 2006.
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