The Difference Between Nursing Home Wandering and Elopement

So the big difference is actually where potentially they can end up. So wandering might be within the actual facility itself; they might only be moving to a different room, they might be wandering around the hallways. Elopement is when they actually leave the facility, when they’ve actually walked outside of the building and gone someplace else.

And elopement varies a lot. Sometimes it’s similar to wandering: they don’t know they’ve left, they’re moving around. Sometimes it’s actually them intending to leave for one reason or another. Perhaps they dislike the facility and are suffering from dementia, so they will try to go back to their old home, they might just try to go to a store—and of course, that causes issues because frequently, if there are elopement or wandering issues, there are also dementia issues.

So they may get lost, they may get injured. If you or a loved one were injured due to either a wandering incident or an elopement incident, you should contact Lanzone Morgan and we’ll be more than happy to help.