We have the door locked and know that is not a great solution, and are looking for a permanent solution. A few times when the door has been unlocked my dad has slipped out and we've found him wandering the neighborhood, on his way somewhere although he's not sure where. Once it was in the middle of the night and the police found him. My mom is hard of hearing and may not always hear the typical door alarms designed for Alzheimer/dementia patients, so we are trying to find out what others in this sort of situation have done. I feel like it can't be that unusual. Note there are others that live at home and would hear an audible alarm. but we need to find something for my mother since she is the primary caregiver. Thanks so much in advance.
A hug and thanks
Once she was pulling hard on the doors and screaming at me, I took her to the neurologist put her on depakote sprinkles 3x daily. It made her sleep alot the first month and then she was okay once her body adjusted. We cut her door in half and locked the bottom half on the outside. ( like a Mr Ed door if you remember that show) She got up and leaned her arms on the door yelling "hi" and then played with things in her bureau and closet so I had to really limit what was in there. She even tried going out a window so beware. I bought those clear window covers that you put on with a hair dryer to cover the windows, about $7 at walmart. You can jam a piece of wood from top of window to top of casing also so it wont go up. One more thing we did it buy a keypad doorknob that goes down to the basement. We have to put in 2 numbers to get the door to open. The on line site I used is called go keyless. Those are about $100 but so worth every penny, just put them on backwards instead of the keypad on the outside.Now that we have grandchildren its all even better, lol. I wish I didnt go through an entire year before I took her to the neurologist but I made it. It does pass, its just a stage so hang in there. You dont want him getting out, they dont care if its dark or not they can go out and get lost of hit by a car. Best of luck to you. Just remember they dont mean it, its the disease. :0)
Check with the police and they will have you fill out information on your Dad. They will send you the bracelet with a special ID number on the bracelet that the police can use to identify him and contact you.