Preventing the disappearance of dementia patients and developmentally disabled people… 4,590 new free ‘wandering detection devices’

The public and private sectors will work together to provide free 4,590 new ‘wandering detection devices’ to prevent dementia patients and people with developmental disabilities from going missing.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Police Agency announced on the 5th that they signed a ‘MOU for the free distribution of wandering detection devices for dementia patients and developmentally disabled people’ with SK Hynix Co., Ltd. to continue and expand the existing free distribution project of wandering detection devices.

This agreement is the third business agreement, and it extends the business agreement for free distribution of wandering detection devices between the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Police Agency, and SK Hynix for three years until 2027, and plans to further strengthen support.

In particular, SK Hynix decided to continue supporting the new wandering detector ‘Smart Guardian 2’ (unit price: 280,000 won) by upgrading it in 2023 to improve user convenience.

At the ‘Happy GPS Business Agreement Ceremony for Free Distribution of Wandering Detection Devices for Dementia Patients and Developmentally Disabled Persons’ held at the SK Hynix headquarters in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do on the morning of the 5th, (from left) Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-geun, First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Ki-il, and SK Hynix External Cooperation General Manager Kim Dong-seop are taking a commemorative photo. (Provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare)

The free distribution of wandering detectors is a social contribution activity of SK Hynix, which provides wandering detectors free of charge to dementia patients and people with developmental disabilities and fully supports communication costs (for 2 years). Starting with the first project between the National Police Agency and SK Hynix in 2017, it has expanded to a project between the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Police Agency, and SK Hynix starting in 2021.

SK Hynix is ​​raising funds to provide free wandering detection devices, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is cooperating in selecting recipients, distribution, and aftercare, and the National Police Agency is using the devices to search for and investigate missing dementia patients and people with developmental disabilities.

From 2017 to last year, 31,871 wandering detection devices were distributed to dementia patients and people with developmental disabilities, and 2,232 cases of discovery were made using these devices.

In particular, while the average discovery time for dementia patients was 12 hours before the introduction of the project, it has been shortened to 40 minutes by 2023 with the use of wandering detection devices, and for those with developmental disabilities, it has been significantly shortened from 76 hours to 1.1 hours. In the case of missing persons cases, the longer it takes, the more difficult it is to find the person and the higher the risk, but thanks to the use of wandering detection devices, the response effectiveness has greatly improved.

SK Hynix will provide free wandering detection devices (including communication costs) to dementia patients and developmentally disabled people for two years, and this year, the support scale will be expanded to 4,590 units (KRW 1.08 billion), a 60% increase from last year (KRW 700 million).

Additionally, the free support period for 4,131 devices (130 million won) distributed in 2022 will be extended by one year.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to systemize the selection of beneficiaries and support through the Central Dementia Center, Dementia Support Center, and Central Disabled Children and Developmentally Disabled Support Center, so that it can provide effective support along with the current service of providing identification tags, dementia check apps, and long-term care insurance devices.

In the case of missing dementia patients or people with developmental disabilities, the National Police Agency plans to utilize the distributed wandering detection devices for search and investigation to quickly find missing persons, and to support more effective projects by operating and promoting the free wandering detection device distribution project together with the existing fingerprint pre-registration system operated by the National Police Agency.

Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency Yoon Hee-geun said, “The number of missing dementia patients reached 14,000 last year, and it is more important than anything else to find missing dementia patients or people with developmental disabilities quickly.” He added, “The distribution of wandering detection devices is considered a leading example in solving the problem of missing persons, so I believe this agreement will greatly contribute to preventing missing persons, including dementia patients. The police will do their best to ensure that all missing persons are safely returned to their families.”

Lee Ki-il, First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, stated, “It is estimated that there are currently 1 million dementia patients and 270,000 developmentally disabled people in Korea. When dementia patients and people with developmental disabilities go missing, it can lead to serious safety accidents, which has become a huge psychological and socioeconomic burden on their families and guardians.” He emphasized, “The distribution of wandering detection devices plays an important role in responding to missing person cases, which become more difficult to find as time passes. We will prepare more thoroughly for missing person cases by supporting missing person prevention services, such as rental of wandering detection devices under the long-term care insurance for the elderly and identification tags for the elderly who may wander.”

Kim Dong-seop, head of external cooperation at SK hynix, said, “Over the past seven years, we have distributed a total of 31,000 wandering detection devices, and around 2,200 missing persons have been found, creating social value worth 5.3 billion won.” He added, “We will work harder to ensure that this project can become a successful public-private cooperation model that contributes to building a social safety net for the missing and vulnerable.”

Inquiries: National Police Agency, Life Safety and Traffic Bureau, Youth Protection Division (02-3150-2248), Ministry of Health and Welfare, Population Policy Office, Elderly Health Division (044-202-3532)