St. Joseph County first responders use QR bracelets to provide the right care
Dec. 30, 2025
SOUTH BEND — St. Joseph County first responders are working to assist the community by identifying the medical needs of a person at the scan of a bracelet.
With the implementation of CARES — Community Awareness Returns Everyone Safely — bracelets, community members, first responders and hospital staff can access the medical-related information of individuals who aren’t able to communicate it. By scanning a QR code on the back of a CARES bracelet and sending an automated text at the click of a button to emergency contacts, it can help people avoid emergency care and save the community money in ambulance and hospital costs.
President and CEO of REAL Services Karla Fales was part of the team that developed the CARES bracelet in Battle Creek, Mich., and brought it to South Bend in 2022 after its success there. Residents in Calhoun County, Mich., saved $675,000 in ambulance and hospital costs alone, Second Wave Michigan reported.
“We were finding that if someone was found confused or disoriented, they would take them to the emergency room,” Fales said. “They may or may not be able to provide information that’s needed.”
In Battle Creek, Mich., 1,500 residents had bracelets and 154 calls were made from them, saving the community around $165,000, just in emergency medical resources, Angelica Baginske, the director of Alzheimer’s and Dementia Services of Northern Indiana, said.
CARES can also help hospitals by crossing communication boundaries. Without having to run labs, the hospital staff can see a person’s medical conditions, medications and blood type by scanning the code, Baginske said.
“If we arrive in the emergency room, unable to tell them anything about us, and if they have this information, how much quicker can they save my life?” she asked.
How CARES works
The low-tech $20 device consists of a metal clasp, similar to a watch, with a QR code inside. The code links to a website with personal information that people can control how little or how much information they want to include. For those without a smartphone, they can call the 800 number on the back. Anyone in the world can access the information in the bracelet.
Judy Riboni, the program specialist for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Services of Northern Indiana, works with caregivers to set up their page with the personal information they want to provide, including: name, a picture, age, city, medical conditions, doctor, preferred hospital, birthdate, blood type, medications, allergies and emergency contacts.
Baginske said to include medical conditions such as dementia or autism, so that first responders can be aware. Vital medical conditions can help a first responder determine how they will provide treatment.
“Are you dealing with drunk and disorderly or dementia? There’s a different way to approach both those things,” she said.
When the bracelet is scanned, a read bar can be selected to notify emergency contacts by text that the bracelet has been scanned and will send out a map location. Riboni recommends having at least two emergency contacts, which can be changed at any time.
First responders receive ‘pertinent’ information
The South Bend Police Department released a missing/endangered person press release regarding a 74-year-old South Bend man who was reportedly missing from Trailpoint Village Senior Care and Nursing Homes on the city's south side. He was last seen around midnight on July 3, 2024. Police reported that he had several medical conditions, including Alzheimer's Disease, and was believed to be in danger.
Ashley O’Chap, the department's director of communications, described their process for locating a missing person. The department does some work on their end before releasing the information to the public, she said. Detectives will visit the address, search jails and hospitals, and after they've exhausted their options, they'll contact O'Chap to alert the community. In this situation, they worked with the nursing home to gather information about him rather than the family.
Before a Silver Alert could be issued by Indiana State Police, police reported around 9:40 a.m. that the missing man was found and safe. A person saw him, after recognizing his description from the news, and called 911, O'Chap said.
The St. Joseph County Police Department's Sheriff William Redman said he supports the bracelets 100%.
“Anytime we can use updated technology to make our jobs better and be more sufficient, it just helps everybody,” Redman said.
Six out of every 10 people with dementia will wander, a CARES information pamphlet said. If someone wanders off from a home or retirement community, the bracelets are useful if first responders don’t know where the person came from or where they belong, Redman said.
“Simply scanning that barcode will give us pertinent information that we sometimes can’t obtain from the person individually,” he said. “It makes our jobs, especially those patrol officers out in the field, easier to figure out.”
The South Bend Fire Department is trained to identify and use the CARES bracelets.
Suzie Krill, the fire department's public information officer, called the bracelet “timesaving” and one of the tools in their toolbox. She has two contacts linked to her own personal CARES bracelet.
“Even if I get in a car accident, I can have this on,” Krill said. “It would automatically text my brother and sister if someone were to scan it. It’s the coolest thing. I’m surprised we haven’t done this yet.”
Community paramedic with South Bend Fire Erik Lundry said CARES can help speed things up for them.
He explained a scenario: If a caregiver hasn’t noticed that their loved one has wandered off and they’re found on a street corner, we have no idea who they are, he said.
“Maybe they're injured, too, or have some kind of medical event going on where they can’t answer any questions, we’re kind of stuck,” Lundry said.
A person might be allergic to a particular medication on the ambulance and could make things worse, he explained. Paramedics would treat the person accordingly and take them to the closest hospital, he said, adding that hospitals would need to identify them as well.
From personal experience
Fales’ brother was one of the first people to get a bracelet, she said. His wife had dementia and she lost her language early in her Alzheimer’s journey, Fales said. She recalled an incident where her brother passed out at Meijer and his wife couldn’t communicate what was wrong.
“They both ended up in the ER,” she said.
After, when they both had a bracelet, with their own medical information detailed on their page, it happened again.
“They were able to scan the bracelet and call the daughter, who came and picked up mom,” Fales said.
For her family, the bracelet provided a “less destructive and less stressful” experience, she said.
Residents are seeing CARES work beyond the purpose of assisting someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
At the 34th annual Stand By Me walk June 8 at Howard Park, Gayla Konanz wore a gray CARES bracelet around her wrist. She decided to get it just in case anything happened to her while biking, she said.
“If anything happens and my phone wasn’t right on me, then I would have that information,” Konanz said.
She planned to buy a bracelet for her mother, who recently had a fall, so paramedics will have access to her mother’s information if future incidents were to happen.
“That way it takes away the stigma, too,” Konanz said. “It’s not just for people with dementia. Everybody can wear them. We all need them. You never know what’s going to happen.”