The Alzheimer's Association says never lock a person in at home. The NIA says to keep the key nearby in case of emergency. A lock only he cannot open, when you are at the store, is a lock nobody in that house can use in a fire.

Dad keeps unlocking the door

Q: A deadbolt out of the line of sight

Place deadbolts out of the line of sight, high or low, on exterior doors. A latch or deadbolt above or below eye level on every door. If he can open that lock, the NIA says you may need a new latch or lock.

Q: A person in the house during the hour he tries

Hardware hears the door after the fact or slows him on the way. It does not sit down with him. Identify the hour he is most likely to wander and put a person in the house for that hour. If he does get out, search the house, yard and street, then call 911 at fifteen minutes.

The house

He still knows the lock at eye level. The order is a chime, then a deadbolt he does not see, then a new latch if that one is not enough, then the coats, then a person in the house at the hour he tries.

Published 11 September 2026 by the Mom Wanders desk. Each number and named program is cited in the sentence that uses it. Nothing here is medical advice.

You typed "dad with dementia keeps unlocking the door" because the lock you already have is doing exactly what it was built to do. He can still work it. His hand finds the thumbturn at eye level, the cylinder turns, and the door opens the way it has opened since he moved into this house. You are looking for a house slower than that habit, and still a house he can leave if there is smoke in the hall.

The Alzheimer's Association's wandering page puts the rule in front of the hardware: never lock a person in at home. Six in 10 people living with dementia will wander at least once. Unlocking is often how that starts in a house he still knows. Try the steps below in order.

He still knows the lock

The lock at eye level is the lock he has practiced every time he left for work, every time he took out the trash, every time he answered the porch. Dementia can take the reason he is standing there and leave the motion. So the first honest step is to stop asking the familiar lock to do a job it cannot do. He will keep unlocking it because that is what that lock is for.

The Association also says to identify the time of day the person is most likely to wander. The hour is as useful as the hardware. If it is dusk, the late-day window is doing part of the work. If it is two in the morning, a walk to the toilet may be doing it. Write the hour down for a week.

Never lock him in

The NIA, on the same subject, says to keep doors locked but to keep the key nearby in case of emergency. Its home safety page says to use smoke detectors and natural gas detectors and check their batteries, because a person living with Alzheimer's may not be able to smell smoke. A lock only he cannot open, when you are at the store, is a lock nobody in that house can use in a fire.

Keep the emergency key on a hook you can reach in the dark. Tell everyone who sleeps there where it is. Press the smoke detector button this week, before you add a second lock.

A chime so a person hears the door

Do not start by replacing the lock. Start by hearing it. The Alzheimer's Association suggests you install warning bells above doors or use a monitoring device. The NIA suggests a smart doorbell or alarm that chimes when a door is opened. A hardware-store contact chime does this.

A chime tells a person in the house that the door moved. It does not tell you before. If you are twenty minutes away, it is a record of the moment he left, not a plan. That is why a person in the house, later on this page, is the last step rather than a device.

A deadbolt out of the line of sight

He reaches for the lock he has always reached for and, for a long stretch, stops there. The Alzheimer's Association says to place deadbolts out of the line of sight, either high or low, on exterior doors. Its home safety page says the same for every door: a latch or deadbolt either above or below eye level. The NIA suggests a keyed deadbolt or another lock placed up high or down low.

A second lock above the frame, or down by the kick plate, is a lock his hand does not know. High and low locks slow him down. They must not stop you or a firefighter. Keep that key on the hook from the section above.

If he can open that lock, a new latch

Some men will find any lock you put on a door they have owned for decades. The NIA is direct: if the person can open a lock, you may need a new latch or lock. That is not a failure of the first try. It is the next try. Change one thing, watch a week, then change the next.

A new latch is still a latch you can open. Put the new key on the same hook. If he opens that one too, stop adding metal and go to camouflage, the coats, and a person in the room.

Camouflage, a curtain, a STOP sign

A door that does not look like a door is a door he may not try. The Alzheimer's Association suggests you camouflage doors by painting them the same color as the walls. The Family Caregiver Alliance suggests a barrier like a curtain or colored streamer to mask the door, and mentions a black mat. The NIA suggests STOP, DO NOT ENTER, or CLOSED signs on doors.

Try one at a time. A sign that frightens him comes down. If you catch him at the door, the hardware is not the conversation. The Family Caregiver Alliance says to connect with the person on a feeling level, before you redirect. The Alzheimer's Association's communication page says to avoid arguing. What to say instead is on the doorway page.

Coats and keys out of sight

This is the change that costs nothing and often helps first. The NIA says to keep shoes, keys, suitcases, coats, hats, and other signs of departure out of sight. The Family Caregiver Alliance says to put away the coat, purse, or glasses. A man who cannot find his jacket often cannot finish the story of leaving. The errand dissolves in the search.

Hide the departure props. Do not hide the emergency key.

Night lights so a bathroom trip does not become a departure

A lot of two in the morning unlockings start as a walk to the toilet in the dark. The Alzheimer's Association's wandering page says to use night lights throughout the home. The NIA's room-by-room falls guide is specific: leave a light on in the bathroom at night or use a night light that turns on automatically, with night lights and light switches close to the bed. Many falls happen at home. A lit path from the bed to the toilet and back is a path that can end in bed, not at the thumbturn.

A person in the house during the hour he tries

Every item above hears the door after the fact or slows him on the way to it. None of it sits down with him. The Alzheimer's Association's middle-stage page says it will become too difficult or dangerous for a person with Alzheimer's to be left alone. Put that next to the hour you wrote down. The most reliable measure is someone in the house during that hour, who hears the floorboard before the latch.

The NIA says to redirect attention to a new object or activity and to keep a comforting home. If he does get out: house, yard, street. If you cannot find him in fifteen minutes, call 911 and say he has dementia. The Association notes that many people who wander are found within 1.5 miles of home. Keep a recent photo. The NIA says to tell neighbors and the police, and names MedicAlert at 800-432-5378.

The person at the door with him is often a daughter. Sometimes it is a wife. If you are a husband doing this work, Caring for My Wife is written in that voice. For nights at two in the morning, the night-shift page is the plan for who is awake. The fuller house list is on the page about leaving the house at night.

What to do tonight

You cannot repaint a door tonight. You can hang a chime, move the coats and the keys, put a lamp in the front hall, set the phone by the bed, and hang the extra key where you can find it in the dark. Do those five things. The rest of the list is for Saturday, one change at a time.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

Hardware is your department. Why he is at the door is his doctor's. The NIA lists pain, depression, too little rest or sleep, constipation, and certain medications among the things an exam can check. The Alzheimer's Association says to consult health care providers if strategies do not help. Tell the doctor if unlocking is new, suddenly worse, or comes with a fall. Take a week of hours. That page is more useful than "he keeps getting out."

Paid placement, disclosed

For families in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park and St. Louis who want a person in the house at the hour he tries the lock, New Plan Care Solutions provides non-medical presence: a caregiver near the door through those hours. Call (314) 405-0887.

Disclosed feature. New Plan Care Solutions is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, and pays for this placement. It was not ranked against anything on this page.

Keep reading

All the guides.

From the sources on this page

Never lockAlzheimer's Association: never lock a person in at home. High or lowPlace deadbolts out of the line of sight, either high or low, on exterior doors. New latchNIA: if the person can open a lock, you may need a new latch or lock. 15 minutesThen 911. Many people who wander are found within 1.5 miles of home.