An apparatus and system for minimizing the risk that a cognitively impaired individual will wander or elope, and for locating the individual in case he or she nonetheless successfully wanders or elopes. The system employs a wearable appliance which the cognitively impaired individual should not be able to remove easily. The system also employs a smartphone having an application for use by a care giver. A website and cloud server are employed for communication of data from the wearable appliance to the smartphone and from the smartphone to the website. In an optional embodiment, the smartphone can initiate notifications to other smartphones held by other individuals who can assist in the search.