Saturday, May 4, 2013

Fiona Phillips, Police tags for dementia patients would be a lifesaver


Some have said it’s barbaric.I say tagging would have saved my dad’s life, hours of police time – and a whole lot of heartache.

Fiona Phillips with her Dad Neville


Many people have protested over the Sussex police force plan to tag people with dementia with GPS tracking devices so they can find them more quickly when they wander.

Some have said it’s barbaric. I don’t agree.

If my lovely dad had been tagged he wouldn’t have gone missing for eight hours, causing police and social services to brand him an “at risk adult” and to take the decision that he should be placed in a “specialist” dementia care home where he stayed for one night, before being kicked out because he was confused and violent – common symptoms of dementia.

He was admitted, as an emergency, to a psychiatric hospital where he was heavily sedated and given dangerous antipsychotics that made him so ill, he died within weeks.

I’d say tagging would have saved my dad’s life, hours of police time – and a whole lot of heartache.

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