My mom died of this disease, it's wretched. I've noticed if there is water around, they always go in that direction, I have no idea why.
Yes, there are GPS shoes, but they're $300 and there is an additional $20 per month fee to keep the monitoring in place. If someone's planned well that's fine, but in many cases the dementia isn't diagnosed until after the person has made many bad financial judgments, like cashing in their retirement account and buying something big, so the cost is prohibitive for many people. I'm hoping it'll come down in a few years.
A lot of this is caregiver denial and hoping nothing will happen too. Not saying particularly in this case, but I was accused of being "overdramatic" when I had a door put in with a lock my mom couldn't reach to keep her off the basement steps and away from the back door in case I was sleeping and she got up. I was terrified she would wander or hurt herself, but there were some nights I was so exhausted I would fall into a heavy sleep.
