Secure Hostel and Missing Episodes

Dorothy ‘elopes’ from an Aged Care Facility

Dorothy* resides in a secure hostel designed for people with dementia.  She is an able and active 84 year old ex- secondary school teacher.  One afternoon Dorothy gathered her pillow, a walking stick, coat and handbag and threw them over the high front picket fence of the hostel.  Although people walking past later stated they thought it was a rather odd behaviour, they did not think to interfere. By the time a staff member realised she was missing, Dorothy had long since made her ‘escape’. Dorothy was not found until the next day, after having spent the entire night wandering about. She was found in a city park by a council worker.  The council worker notified the Police who by this stage had received a missing person report.

Identified areas of concern

1. People with dementia can be innovative and manage to evade the security measures of even secure facilities. 
2. Passers by did not recognise the danger involved in Dorothy’s behaviour. It is also not always apparent to people in the community that someone is ‘disoriented’ and needing assistance. Frequently, people who become disorientated or confused and wander away from their carers are well dressed and seemingly appropriate in their movements and actions.

How the Safe Return Home system could have helped in Dorothy’s case

1. If Dorothy had been registered with Safe Return Home her identifying details would have been immediately available to Police and could have been provided to local shopkeepers, and broadcast to central taxi networks and other public transport services. 
2. The Safe Return Home system is designed to enable the immediate dispersal of information to all necessary parties in order to maximise the chance of locating the person as quickly as possible and before they have placed themselves in the way of harm.
3. Once a person is reported missing, the public Safe Return Home web site can display their photo and name, thus enabling members of the general public, transport authorities and other agencies to keep a look out for the person, or check if a person who looks lost is someone who has been reported as missing.
   The Safe Return Home database contains in the secure section, multiple relative contact details, thereby ensuring that family members can be quickly notified that a loved one has gone missing or has been found.

*Dorothy is an assumed name to protect the privacy of this family.