An innovative scheme to help locate vulnerable people with dementia who go missing across the county has been launched by Staffordshire Police.
Designed to find people suffering from the condition more quickly, the early intervention scheme is called the Herbert Protocol. Nursing home staff from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire attended one of three events held by Staffordshire Police to launch the scheme.
The protocol consists of a form that contains vital information about a person at risk that can be passed to the police if the person is reported missing, along with a recent photograph of the person.
The scheme will complement existing safeguarding and security measures, and the information shared will help to locate and safeguard someone quicker, although it won’t prevent vulnerable people from going missing. The latest figures for Staffordshire show that in 2015 – 16, 1058 adults were reported missing with 32 (3%) having dementia at the time of the missing report.
The Alzheimer’s Society (2015) estimates that 60% of people living with dementia will “go walking” outdoors at some point in the course of their condition.
Diane Malkin, Vulnerability Manager for Staffordshire Police, said: “This protocol is very important to us within our role to protect people who are vulnerable. Those who have a caring responsibility can record and share information when necessary to help us locate and safeguard people quicker.
“We are looking to nursing homes to work with us to sign up to the protocol and then towards the autumn we will be launching this to the public.”
