Charity backs dementia taggings

Proposed electronic tagging of dementia sufferers, with their agreement, has been backed by the Alzheimer's Society. The charity said the plan could empower patients by allowing them to wander, but called for a debate on the ethics of gaining consent.

Many dementia sufferers feel compelled to walk about outside - the society says 60% may wander, and 40% have got lost at some point. The government has said tagging could allow people to lead "fuller lives".

Science Minister Malcolm Wicks first proposed the measure in April. He said sufferers would gain the freedom to "roam around their communities" without their families suffering the anxiety that such wandering can currently cause.

The chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, Neil Hunt, agrees that the technology "could offer benefits to people with dementia and their carers". But he stressed: "There is a careful balance to strike between empowering people and restricting their movement and this technology can certainly never be used as an alternative for high quality dementia care."

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said the scheme had potential pitfalls. He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The problem with this is that you could see second-class care - using it as a way of making life easier for carers rather than as a way of making life safer or more pleasant for the person with Alzheimer's."

He said the scheme was "not something that ought to go ahead without parliamentary debate and possibly even legislation".

Kate Ghosh, director of the British Institute of Human Rights, said the use of a tracking system should never be "a substitute for proper resources". "Some people are rightly questioning this and are wanting to be very sure that it's not going to be something that would just be used for convenience when there could be other measures that could be taken," she said.

Such measures could include those to help "protect people for their own safety but also, perhaps more fundamentally, to enable them to carry on being as free as they possibly can", she added.

Elizabeth McLennan, policy officer for Help the Aged, said electronic tagging was a good idea in principle. "But it must always be determined by choice - it cannot be the case that a diagnosis automatically goes hand in hand with a tag," she said. "If older people get confused and wander off it can put them in danger and cause a huge amount of distress and worry for their family. Tagging could potentially allow people with dementia the chance to retain their freedom and help to keep them safe at the same time."

The British Geriatrics Society (BGS), an association for doctors practising geriatric medicine, said tagging could be of benefit to patients, carers and families but warned against rushing into it. BGS chief executive Alex Mair said: "It is a laudable objective but would have to be extremely carefully worked out in advance as it could be open to abuse."

The Alzheimer's Society said decisions about whether to use a tracking device should be made in conjunction with the person with the disease in the earlier stages of dementia. Chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, said she would want health workers to talk to people at an early stage to get informed consent.

Marilyn Loveday, who cares for her husband, Christopher - who has Alzheimer's - said she thought tagging could prove invaluable for carers. She told BBC News: "In the earlier stages, I would have welcomed it because he just used to leave the house and we didn't have a clue where he was and quite often he'd be gone for hours."

Tracking devices use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate the wearer. There is currently a growing market for devices which allow parents to monitor their children's whereabouts, but even here the issue has proved controversial.

There are currently 700,000 people living in the UK with some form of dementia. This is predicted to reach 1.7m by 2051.