Wandering alert at 14:12: what happens at the door?
Many residents with dementia “want to go home” in the afternoon. If a door is left open, or a resident slips out alongside a visitor, they can be in trouble within minutes, and carers often only notice once they have to start searching.
Wandering protection does not lock the resident in; it tells the carer in time. In this article we follow a single alert in a fictional care home, from the moment a resident is given her wristband until a carer closes the alert.
Before · Mária gets a smart wristband and still moves freely around the home
Mária Bognár has dementia but walks on her own, and in the afternoons she often goes looking for her coat: “I have to go home, they’re waiting for me.” The carers know this well. So, with her daughter’s agreement, the head nurse gave her a smart wristband and, on the Wandering protection page in GIRBO, added her to the residents who need extra attention.
Mária wears the comfortable wristband, and during the day she moves around the home just like everyone else: she walks along the corridor, goes down to the lounge and joins in the activities. The wristband raises an alert in three cases: if it is taken off, if it is cut, or if Mária leaves the building. When that happens, GIRBO alerts the carers immediately.
14:12 · Mária walks out of the main entrance, and the carers know at once
In the early afternoon, during visiting hours, the main entrance is often open. Mária puts on her coat and walks out of the door.
At that moment the alarm sounds at the door, and the alert appears in GIRBO: Mária Bognár, main entrance, 14:12, going out. The carers, the management and the doctor are notified in GIRBO, and the alert also stays on the Wandering protection page among the alerts that are still open. Erika, the afternoon carer, is at the nurses’ station and sees in GIRBO straight away who it is and which door she went through.
If the wristband signals again in the next few minutes, GIRBO adds this to the same alert. So the carers do not get ten alerts about the same thing, yet they still see everything that happens in the meantime.
14:14 · Two minutes later Erika is by her side and calmly walks her back
Erika catches up with her just outside the entrance. She does not pull Mária back; she falls into step beside her, and they walk down to the garden together. They look at the geraniums, then Erika invites her in for a coffee. What started as an escape has turned into a walk together.
When they get back, Erika adds a few words to the alert: “Walked her back in. We had a stroll in the garden, and she calmed down afterwards.” Then she closes the alert with one tap. GIRBO keeps the note, Erika’s name and the time she closed it.
Afterwards · The episode is not forgotten, and it feeds into the care plan
A closed alert does not disappear. Among the recent alerts, the head nurse can see when it happened, who closed it and what they wrote. So the episode is not just something remembered from a chat in the corridor; it is a documented event.
Erika also writes a few lines in the care log about Mária’s restlessness that afternoon, mentions it at the shift handover, and phones her daughter to tell her what happened. If Mária had got further, out onto the street for example, Erika would also record it as an incident, noting how serious the situation was and what they did.
At the weekly meeting, the head nurse uses the alerts and the log entries to update Mária’s care plan: as part of her mental well-being care, she plans a regular afternoon activity for her, because that is when the restlessness usually sets in.
The wristband also raises an alert if it is taken off or cut
The wristband raises an alert not only when the resident leaves the building, but also when it is taken off or cut. This is treated as just as urgent as the resident walking out of the building.
If her daughter takes Mária out for a walk on Sunday, the wristband raises an alert at the door in exactly the same way. That is how it should be, because the carer needs to know that the resident has left the building. When closing the alert, the carer notes: “Out for a walk with her daughter, agreed in advance.” Later on, the log clearly separates unexpected departures from planned ones.
Introduce it in five steps, so the team and the family are on board
The wristband is only half of it; the other half is making sure the team and the family understand what it is for. This order works well:
- Decide together with the carers who should have a wristband. Who has already headed for the exit? Who is likely to do so as their dementia progresses?
- Talk to the relatives. Explain that the wristband is there for the resident’s safety: they can move freely around the home, and the carers are alerted if they leave the building or if the wristband is taken off or cut.
- Pay attention to comfort. Fit the wristband so that it is comfortable for the resident and they do not want to take it off.
- Run a test alert. Once everything is installed, it is worth trying it out once, so that everyone hears the alarm at the door, sees how the alert appears in GIRBO and knows who does what.
- Make someone responsible for checking the wristbands. Have one person who checks the wristbands regularly, so they are always in good condition.
Our quote covers the equipment needed (the wristbands and the devices for the exits) and the installation. How much you need depends on the building and on the number of exits and residents; we assess this together with you.
Instead of a locked door: the resident moves freely, and the carer is still there in time
In many homes, residents with dementia are kept safe by locked doors, keypad gates or constant supervision. All of these restrict the resident’s movement and take up the carers’ attention.
The smart wristband takes a different approach: the resident can move freely around the home, and the carer is alerted when there may really be a problem. Every alert can be looked up later, so you can always see what happened, when, and what was done.
Unique on the Hungarian market: GIRBO is the only Hungarian system built for residential care homes that also offers wandering protection with a smart wristband. The wristband raises an alert if it is taken off or cut, and if the resident leaves the building: an audible alarm sounds at the door, and the carers see in GIRBO straight away who it is. They close the alert in the same place where they keep the resident’s care records.
What does this mean for the manager?
- Every alert can be looked up to the minute, rather than relying on someone remembering a phone call.
- Carers do not have to guard the door: if a resident walks out, an audible alarm sounds at the door and GIRBO shows at once who went out. So carers can give their attention to the residents with peace of mind.
- Experience feeds into care: based on the notes added to alerts and the log entries, the head nurse can make targeted changes to the care plan.
The characters in this story are fictional; the process works like this in GIRBO.