If you are a reader of my tandem blog, PsychOdyssey, you'll remember the harrowing night when my schizophrenic son relapsed with substances, got behind the wheel on a cold winter's night, and then... got lost! (See "Lost... And Almost Not Found".) Although he was way high and drunk, and presumably nearing psychosis, thank
God he had sense enough to call me on his cell phone ("Dad, I've relapsed, and I don't know where I am!").
He didn't know where he was, and we had to find him. But he only had 15 minutes of battery time left on his cell phone. We didn't have the GPS function active on his cell phone. And the police couldn't track him on their radio waves without a judge's consent, which would have taken three hours. In the end, I had to phone-coach my son, even though inebriated, to drive (carefully!) back to a place where we could pinpoint his location of a map. Thank God he was able to do that (without getting arrested), and thank God we were able to rescue him safe and unharmed.
God he had sense enough to call me on his cell phone ("Dad, I've relapsed, and I don't know where I am!").He didn't know where he was, and we had to find him. But he only had 15 minutes of battery time left on his cell phone. We didn't have the GPS function active on his cell phone. And the police couldn't track him on their radio waves without a judge's consent, which would have taken three hours. In the end, I had to phone-coach my son, even though inebriated, to drive (carefully!) back to a place where we could pinpoint his location of a map. Thank God he was able to do that (without getting arrested), and thank God we were able to rescue him safe and unharmed.
But I resolved from that point that we must always know two things: where my son is and where his car is. I set out to find technology to do this.
Cell Phone Locator
Verizon Wireless, with which my family has a family plan, has a feature that can allow the account holder to track the location of any of the cell phones associated with it. The feature is called Family Locator, offered at $9.99 per month. Family Locator requires a recent-issue cell phone that has capacity to send and receive GPS signals. Since my son's phone was an older model, I had to replace it with a new phone. I procured the most basic phone, which didn't cost me anything except the requirement to extend my phone plan another two years. Family Locator works fine. Through Verizon Wireless's website, I can press a locator button, and after a few seconds a map appears with the exact location of the cell phone. This is a beautiful thing for reducing my worry about being able to find my son in case something has gone wrong.
But it is not a complete answer...
Car Locator
What is the phone runs out of juice? Or if the loved one forgets to take it? Or, most likely, if he or she turns it off? Then the Family Locator is of no use.
There is another solution, one that comes with a clever name: ZoomBak. Owned the Liberty Media (which is led by the well-known media mogul, John Malone), ZoomBak is a personal GPS locator service. ZoomBak makes a small device (as pictured above) which a kid can carry in his school bag, a dog owner can attach to his dog's collar... or a worried father of a relapse-prone loved one with schizophrenia can install in his car.
The ZoomBak service all-in is a little expensive. The device itself costs $149. The car installation kit costs another $49.99. And the monthly service runs $19.99 per month (or, "just" $0.60 a day!...), with a discount for signing up for a longer contract. As with Verizon's Family Locator service, a ZoomBak user can dial up through the ZoomBak website exactly where the device is. When installed in a car, the device is continually powered by the car battery, so will never run out of juice.
But I've decided this is worth the money. I may not be able to prevent my son from relapsing, but now I am assured that I can find him wherever he is, before his relapse might get him into more serious trouble.
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