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SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. — A lost person with Alzheimer's or autism can be much more difficult to find than a misplaced hiker, and Summit County now has a service to prevent such unfortunate mishaps.
Summit County Rescue coordinator Joe Ben Slivka said situations with mental disorders are of “incredibly high urgency” because “it's different from somebody backpacking the Gore Range — somebody with the ability to feed ... and help themselves.”
Colorado Life Trak uses transmitters the size of wristwatches that the person wears at all times (pictured). If that person wanders off, the rescue group's transmitters can detect it from 4 to 5 miles away.
In addition, the transmitters are coded, making it much easier for the group to find the person's physical description and other important factors.
Summit County Ambulance Service deputy director Roger Coit said his service, the rescue group and Sheriff's Office partnered to get a roughly $10,000 grant to support the Life Trak service.
“We're really excited about this,” he said. “(It will) save hugely on clients' well-being and safety.”
The average search and recovery time for the service — which is used in several other Colorado areas — is less than 30 minutes, according to a press release from the ambulance service.
Other common conditions that qualify people for Life Trak include dementia, Down syndrome and Prader-Willi.
The grant from the Colorado Department of Public Safety included the transmitter bracelets, batteries and receivers.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From Summit Daily News:
