New MedicAlert initiative to help police ID lost or injured people

June 13, 2019 · 0 Comments

Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

The Shelburne Police Service is launching a new initiative designed to help them assist people who have a medical condition and can’t speak for themselves.

The MedicAlert Connect Protect program will link people wearing a Medic Alert bracelet to a database that will provide information about the bracelet wearer’s identity information, wandering history, and an up to date photo.

While the program can help any registered person who has a medic alert bracelet, the focus is mainly on people with forms of dementia who may become lost or disoriented.

Many police services around the province are now linked in to this type of program.

“If a person registers with MedicAlert they can enter all their information such as a recent picture and what their medical condition would be and that gets put into a data bass,” explained Shelburne Police Service Constable Jennifer Roach, who is spearheading the local initiative. “It’s a 24-7 worldwide data base. For example, if someone from Shelburne happens to be in Florida on vacation and somebody wandered, if a police officer down there was to find them with their bracelet they would have the contact information for their guardian.”

The program is helpful for people with dementia, Alzheimers, brain injuries, or on the autism spectrum.

“This is for anyone who could be at risk for wandering or having medical difficulty where they would be unable to identify themselves,” Constable Roach explained. “This program stores information that is on your bracelet. If a police officer found a person, we would call our dispatch, and they would call Medic Alert and they would give us all the information we need. It doesn’t have to be police officers – anyone who found the bracelet and calls the police will able to get proper medical help.”

The police will have a booth set up at the corner of Main and William Street during the Shelburne Street festival on Saturday, June 15.

People can register at the booth or find out more information on what the program is all about and how it can benefit those who could need it.