Georgia Mattie's Call: How It Works for Dementia Wandering

What Mattie's Call Is

Mattie's Call is Georgia's emergency alert system for missing disabled or elderly persons, created in 2006. It operates similarly to an AMBER Alert but targets adults with cognitive impairments — Alzheimer's disease, dementia, developmental disabilities, or other conditions that make them vulnerable when unsupervised.

When activated, Mattie's Call pushes an alert through Georgia's law enforcement network, media outlets, and electronic highway signs. The goal is rapid recovery before exposure, dehydration, or injury becomes serious.

How the Alert Gets Activated

Mattie's Call is not something families activate directly. You call 911 or your local police department and report your parent missing. Law enforcement then determines whether the situation meets the criteria for a Mattie's Call activation.

The key criteria: the person must be missing, they must have a documented cognitive or developmental disability, and there must be reason to believe they are in immediate danger of injury or death. Once activated, the person's information is entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, which makes the missing person record visible to law enforcement agencies nationwide.

The practical timeline matters. Most families hesitate to call police because they think their parent might have just walked to a neighbor's house. Do not wait. Law enforcement can assess the situation far faster than you can search alone, and the earlier a Mattie's Call is activated, the more effective the response.

What to Prepare Before an Emergency

The time to prepare for a wandering emergency is long before it happens. When law enforcement responds to a Mattie's Call, they need specific information immediately — and a panicked family member searching through drawers for a recent photo wastes critical minutes.

Assemble a Mattie's Call preparation folder with the following:

• A recent photograph (front-facing, well-lit, kept current as appearance changes with disease progression)
• A physical description including height, weight, hair color, distinguishing marks
• A physician's letter confirming the dementia diagnosis and describing the person's cognitive limitations
• A list of places the person frequents — former workplace, church, childhood home, a friend's house
• Medications they take (relevant because missed doses can create a medical emergency on top of the wandering emergency)
• A household item reserved for DNA profiling — a toothbrush or hairbrush kept sealed in a bag

Keep this folder somewhere every family member knows about. If an aide or family member is on duty when the person goes missing, they need to be able to hand it to police without calling you first.

Wandering Prevention Measures

Prevention is cheaper, less traumatic, and more effective than response. Georgia families have several options.

Door alarms and motion sensors. A basic door chime that alerts when an exterior door opens can catch exit-seeking behavior during waking hours. For nighttime wandering, motion-activated sensors in hallways can alert a caregiver sleeping in another room.

GPS tracking devices. Wearable GPS trackers designed for dementia patients can help locate a person when wandering occurs. Several models are designed to look like wristwatches and include geofencing (an alert triggers when the wearer leaves a defined area); compare features and current monitoring costs before choosing one.

Identification. A medical ID bracelet engraved with the person's name, diagnosis, and an emergency contact number means that anyone who finds your parent can call you directly. The Alzheimer's Association also operates MedicAlert + Alzheimer's Association Safe Return, a nationwide registry that links identification jewelry to a 24/7 response line.

Home modifications. Deadbolts placed at the top of doors (above the natural sight line of someone with dementia), childproof covers on door handles, and camouflage techniques for exits (a dark mat in front of a door can deter exit-seeking) are practical modifications that reduce wandering incidents.

How Mattie's Call Fits Into the Bigger Picture

Wandering is one of the safety signals that typically prompts families to evaluate whether home care is still sustainable or whether a move to a secured memory care environment is necessary. If your parent has had multiple exit-seeking incidents, the conversation about next steps is overdue.

The Georgia Dementia & Memory Care Guide includes a printable Mattie's Call Emergency Profile template and walks through the full decision framework — from home safety modifications to memory care facility selection to Medicaid waiver financing.

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