WHY PEOPLE WANDER?

•Task Oriented: Most people always have something to do. Even if they don’t, they create something to keep their hands and brain busy. People with dementia relive their former lives and leave their home believing they are going to a job or shopping.

•Pain, discomfort and agitation: Emotions can be reason to wander. They are not happy in their present situation so if they move to another location maybe those symptoms will not come with them. But in actuality, they are wandering.

•Loss of Memory: When people become disoriented due to their present thoughts disappearing, their reality being blurred or seeking places that were once familiar to them, they wander looking to go back to those comforting and safe places. They are searching for their past.

•Disorientation: They may wake up at 5 in the morning and not know if it is day going into night or night going into day. They will leave their surroundings to seek the answer.