Staff reports
MADISON COUNTY — A Virginia-based not-for-profit organization that supplies radio transmitters to people at risk of wandering away from caregivers is returning to Madison County.
Project Lifesaver — which last operated in Madison County in 2015 — has partnered with Community Hospital Anderson Foundation and county public safety agencies to reintroduce the service for people of all ages.
Project Lifesaver clients normally live with a diagnosis of autism, Alzheimer’s or other condition that makes them susceptible to wandering.
Project Lifesaver clients are fitted with radio transmitters, and public safety agencies are equipped with receivers for those transmitters. Each transmitter emits a radio identification signal that is specific to an individual.
If a Project Lifesaver client wanders away, police, fire and emergency management agencies can respond to aid caregivers in a search using receiver equipment.
Community Hospital Anderson Foundation is funding the purchase of four radio receivers that will be carried and used by personnel at the Madison County Emergency Management Agency.
Each receiver costs $1,500.
The foundation also is helping to fund transmitters for clients who are unable to pay for them.
Transmitters have a one-time cost of $300.
Madison County Sheriff Scott Mellinger, whose department will administer Project Lifesaver for Madison County, ordered a local review of the program last summer after being contacted by local residents. They were concerned following several recent deaths involving autistic children who had wandered away from their homes.
“Project Lifesaver returning to Madison County is an important step in protecting our at-risk residents,” Mellinger wrote in a press release. “We are so fortunate to have a partner like the Community Hospital Anderson Foundation involved in this effort.”
“Keeping individuals healthy and safe is a commitment that Community Hospital continues to make to our community,” Tom Bannon, vice president of community engagement and chief foundation officer, wrote in the press release. “We see the purchase of this equipment as an opportunity to further invest in the well being of Madison County.”
Madison County Emergency Management Agency volunteers are scheduled to train on the receiver equipment at the end of this month. The program is anticipated to begin by the end of March.
Sheriff Mellinger said caregivers who participated in the program between 2011 and 2015 and still have a radio transmitter are asked to call the sheriff’s department; the transmitters can be registered for reuse in the new program. Radio transmitters also are transferable.
Questions about Project Lifesaver for Madison County can be directed to the sheriff department’s community policing number at 765-646-9250.