Janet Rivera cares for her 79-year-old mother, who has dementia, and her 25-year-old son, who has a genetic disorder called fragile X syndrome. Despite their different diagnoses, both of her loved ones share a common symptom: they tend to wander away from home and have cognitive impairments that make it difficult for them to find their way back.
When she stumbled Los Angeles founda county program that distributes free technology to help find vulnerable people with cognitive impairment seemed like a lifeline.
The county gave her son and mother each a free bracelet that emits a radio signal every few seconds. If one of them goes missing, Rivera will call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which will turn on the monitoring system and track the signal from the missing person's device.
She feels that the trackers preserve the freedom and independence of her loved ones while reducing her fears that they might get hurt if she can't find them immediately.
“You have no idea how much this helps us manage stress as caregivers and maintain peace of mind,” she told an audience gathered Wednesday at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
The event marked the LA Found program's seventh anniversary and the addition of a new technology tool to the program's arsenal.
Participants can now choose between two wearable devices: a bracelet with a radio transmitter supported by the nonprofit Project Lifesaver, or a GPS-enabled smartwatch from technology company Theora Care that can be connected to an app on the caregiver's phone.
Jordan Wall, who has autism, shows off her GPS watch on October 15, 2025 at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The program, which also offers home safety training and other resources for families, grew out of Manhattan Beach resident Kirk Moody's efforts to find his wife Nancy Paulikas, who disappeared Oct. 15, 2016, while the couple was visiting the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As Moody and his family searched the museum grounds, surveillance cameras captured Paulikas, who had early-onset Alzheimer's disease, walking along Wilshire Boulevard. In December 2018, he received a call that remains had been discovered in Sherman Oaks Park. were hers.
During it two-year searchMoody and the non-profit organization Los Angeles with Alzheimer's began working with Supervisor Janice Hahn and others on the initiative that became the Los Angeles Foundation.
The service is available to any Los Angeles County resident diagnosed with dementia, autism or another cognitive impairment that puts them at higher risk of wandering.
Since then, more than 1,800 people have received tracking devices through the program, and 29 people have been successfully located after going missing.
“No one should have to go through this pain, hopelessness and fear,” Moody said Wednesday on the ninth anniversary of his wife's disappearance.
Wandering is a common symptom of dementia and autism, although for different reasons.
Brain degeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease typically begins in the entorhinal cortex, which helps track our position as we move through space, and then moves to the hippocampus, which helps us understand where things are in relation to us.
As the disease progresses, people find it increasingly difficult to mentally track their location and remember where they are going to go or how to get home.
Autistic people may wander away from home or a caregiver to follow something that has caught their attention, or to avoid unpleasant sensory stimuli such as noise or bright lights.
Research has shown that up to 60% of people suffer from dementiaAnd 25% to 50% autisticwill wander or run away at some point. These episodes can result in injury or death. For reasons that are not entirely clear, children with autism, in particular, often gravitate to bodies of water when they are lost. An average of seven autistic children in the United States drown after going missing every month, according to the data. National Autism Association.
The biggest challenge for families is that many at-risk individuals can successfully bypass complex systems of locks and security sensors without even having the verbal or cognitive abilities to ask for help if they are lost.
People slipped away while surrounded by attentive guardians, and even when families took serious measures to ensure their safety.
Kate Movius has extensively studied wandering and trains first responders to support autistic people. She equipped her Highland Park home with multiple locks and security sensors to protect her autistic son. However, by the time she purchased the Project Lifesaver bracelet for Aidan, now 25, it had gone missing several times.
“If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” Movius said. “As a nurse, you put out so many fires, and [wandering] It won’t occur to you until you live it.”
If you or someone you know could benefit from LA Found's free services, please contact the program at (833) 569-7651. [email protected] or ad.lacounty.gov/lafound.
