Alzheimer’s Caregiving: When your loved one Wanders
Because Alzheimer’s often causes confusion as well as memory loss, victims of this disease can easily become lost or disoriented. Frequently, this lack of certainty will manifest in some form of wandering.
When a person who has Alzheimer’s Disease or any other form of dementia loses their way, the official term is Critical Wandering or Disorientation. The term used when a patient leaves home or a facility with no one’s knowledge is Elopement. Regardless of the label, the disappearance of a loved one causes, at the very least, frustration. If the process of locating your loved one is prolonged, emotions can escalate to the level of panic or even trauma.
Walking back and forth in a specific area, known as pacing, is certainly a concerning behavior, but it does not create the possibility of danger involved in the other forms of wandering. Wandering behavior can occur during any stage of dementia.
Wandering can actually occur in the home if a patient forgets the location of the bathroom or bedroom. It happens in the neighborhood, if your loved one decides to visit a nearby friend and cannot remember the exact location of their own address or they want to return to their childhood “home” and end up travelling aimlessly until they are a great distance from any familiar spaces.
