Get told immediately if someone living with dementia leaves a safe area — including overnight, when wandering is most likely and least likely to be noticed.
Wandering is one of the most frightening aspects of caring for someone with dementia. It happens without warning, often at night, and the window between leaving and being at real risk can be short.
A geofence does not prevent it. What it does is remove the delay between someone leaving and somebody knowing — which is usually the difference between a phone call and a search.
Most geofencing scenarios want a schedule. This one does not.
A school zone that alerts at home time is noise. A safe-area zone that alerts at three in the morning is the entire point. Set this one active around the clock, and accept that it may occasionally alert when a family member takes them out for a walk — that is a far better failure than the alternative.
For the same reason, resist the urge to make the zone large enough that nothing ever triggers. A zone tuned for silence is a zone that will be silent when it matters.
This is where most setups fail, and it is worth more thought than the software.
Phones get left behind. Someone with dementia may not carry a phone reliably, may turn it off, or may not remember it exists. A phone-based setup tends to fail exactly when it is needed.
Wearables work better. A GPS pendant, a watch-style tracker, or a small unit clipped inside a coat or a regularly-used bag stays with the person. Choose by what they will actually keep on them rather than by feature list — the best tracker is the one that does not get removed.
Check the battery honestly. A tracker needing daily charging becomes a tracker that is flat when it counts. Look for something that runs a week or more, and build charging into an existing routine.
Watch the network generation. Many cheap trackers are 2G-only, and 2G has been switched off entirely in several countries. Check coverage where you live before buying — see APN for why a working SIM is not the same as a working data connection.
Include the whole property — house, garden, driveway, and any shared entrance. Then add margin.
GPS is poor indoors, often 30–50 metres out or worse, so a boundary drawn on the property line will report exits from someone sitting in the living room. A generous zone with a solid buffer is far more reliable. See GPS accuracy for realistic figures.
Some carers add a second, wider zone covering the surrounding streets. The inner zone tells you they left the house; the outer one tells you this is no longer a short walk. Two alerts carry more information than one.
A single point of contact is a single point of failure. Geoblip sends to email, push, and in-app simultaneously, so an alert can reach several family members and carers at once. Whoever sees it first responds.
You also get a recovery alert when they return — which matters a great deal here, because it means a family member who is an hour away learns the situation resolved without having to phone and ask.
Someone sitting near a window will produce reported positions that drift across the boundary. Geoblip sends one exit alert and then stays quiet until they genuinely return, so a real departure is not buried under a stream of noise. See alert debouncing.
Worth being direct: this is a notification system, not a safety guarantee. It tells you a boundary was crossed. It does not stop anyone leaving, it cannot help if the device is left behind, and it depends on mobile coverage.
Treat it as one layer among several — alongside door alarms, a daily routine, and neighbours who know the situation. It is a good layer, and it is not the only one you need.
Know if your child leaves school grounds during lesson time — without watching a map all day or tracking their every movement.
Know if someone working alone leaves their assigned site, or is somewhere they should not be at the end of a shift.
Know the moment your dog gets out of the garden, rather than finding out when you next look — with a boundary that matches your actual property.
Draw the zone, add the device, choose the hours. Seven-day free trial, cancel any time.