Police are gathering the personal
details and former addresses of new dementia patients as part of a pilot to
help find them if they go missing.
Officers are working with nursing
homes, GPs and families to find out the favourite haunts and walking spots of
people diagnosed with dementia.
They will also gather where the
person went to school and got married and where they used to live.
They hope this pre-emptive action
will allow them to respond more quickly.
There are estimated to be about
90,000 people in Scotland living with dementia.
Research suggests that at some point
40% of them will go missing.
It is estimated that the numbers of
people with dementia will double by 2030.
The file on dementia patients will
not be kept by police but will be held by family or a nursing home in an agreed
place.
The pilot protocol - which currently
covers seven local authority areas - also involves looking at ways to prevent
the person going missing in the first place by identifying triggers which might
unsettle them and result in them trying to leave their home.
Police Scotland now plans to roll the
pilot out across the country.
Supt Jim Royan, who is in charge of
the pilot protocol, told BBC Scotland: "The most important thing is that
it's not about preventing someone enjoying the same freedoms of life as they've
always enjoyed.
"But if we can do something, if
we can collect information that allows us to respond more quickly that's a good
help.
"It also increases the
care-providers level of vigilance through early identification and risk
assessment."
Jim Pearson, of Alzheimers Scotland,
said he welcomed the move but that it needed to be used with the consent of
patients.
He said: "It's an opportunity
for family members or staff who work in care homes to put together a picture of
that person and gather some information about that person, the places they
lived before, the places they might go if they go missing.
"It means that information is
already there and exists so if that person does go missing, the police aren't
wasting precious time."
He added: "We know that the
nature of the illness means they are potentially more at risk of going missing.
"They are more likely, perhaps,
to become disorientated or stressed or anxious when out of doors.
"Maybe they had intended to go
somewhere - an address they had lived at before or a workplace - and actually
find the environment has changed and they become disorientated and lost.
"People with dementia are more
at risk of going missing and because they are vulnerable are more at risk of
coming to some harm."
Hannah McKay's husband went missing
several times after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and dementia. He went
into care partly as a result.
"On the first occasion we went
to bed and I put my hand over and realised he wasn't there," she said.
"I thought where is he? And it
dawned on me that he's got the key from where it was high up on the hook.
"He'd never shown any intention
of leaving. The police arrived because a gentleman had found him at the back of
the rugby pitch on the ground and it was raining.
"Another time he went over the
main A6 and that was the deciding factor that he needed to go somewhere
secure."
Now Hannah, who is 79, has been
diagnosed with dementia and she has moved to a nursing home in Hawick in the
Borders.
As part of the pilot all of her
details and past addresses have been collected in the format set out by the
police protocol.
Hannah, a retired nurse, thinks it is
a good idea.
"It's better to have the
knowledge before it needs to happen," she said.
"We need to prepare for the
problems before they start, so it is in place.
"I see the point of having a
form with as much information on that form as you can give so that it gives you
a good start.”
SOURCE: BBC News, Lucy Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment