Respite Placement in Aged Care Facility

Neville’s episode of wandering

Neville* is a physically fit man with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease. He recently spent some time as a hostel resident in a secure aged care facility as part of a respite plan. Neville has a history of 'wandering', however the facility he was placed in had camera surveillance on every exit. However, after only two weeks in the facility, Neville went missing.

The facility video camera showed that at 1.00pm a doctor left via the front door after first holding it open to let a person out– this person was Neville. After a thorough search of the building and grounds failed to find him, staff phoned this Doctor who stated he hadn’t realised that the person he let out was a patient as he had looked ‘normal’ and had asked directions to a suburb about 30 minutes away. The doctor said he had assumed the man had a car as he was nicely dressed and carried a small bag.

When notified, Neville's family said that the suburb to which Neville had sought direction was where he and his now deceased wife had lived 20 years ago. The Police began a search for him, while his family searched along the route the Doctor had suggested to Neville.

From tracing Neville’s steps along this route the family found that he had stopped for directions from a service station and finally from a lady who lived about a block from his former home. This lady had asked him in for a cup of tea as she thought he looked tired and upset. She also phoned her local Police station hoping they would know how to help him. This Police station was in a different district to the aged care facility so did not have an official missing person report.

The local Police offered to pick him up as soon as possible and begin checking with all local aged care facilities in the area. Meanwhile Neville’s distressed family had started door knocking all the homes in the vicinity of Neville’s former home, eventually coming into contact with the lady who had helped Neville and learning that he was now at the local Police station.

Neville was reunited with his worried family 10 hours after he went missing. Neville could not remember how he had got to his old suburb.

Identified areas of concern

The facility had no photo of Neville to help the Police in their search. A verbal description was the only option and this is less effective as an identification aid compared with a recent photo.
The Police station where Neville was eventually taken to was in a different District to the one where he was reported missing. The Police in this location had no easy way to check if the person they collected had been reported missing in another district.
Neville had no identification on him to help the Police identify who he was.
Neville could not provide the Police with information to help in his identification.
The Police station was very busy and resources were stretched. The identification of Neville had to compete with other Police tasks related to criminal activity and other emergencies in the community.

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

If Neville had been registered with Safe Return Home his family would have the option of providing facility staff with immediate access to the internet database or a print-out of the information. This would have enabled them to know his previous places of residence and other possible destinations of his wandering.
Neville’s identifying information, including a high quality and up-to-date photograph would have been immediately available to the Police.
With relative’s permission, Neville’s photo and name could have been posted on the public Safe Return Home website.
All Police stations would have had access to the secure section of the Safe Return Home database, thereby enabling them to immediately identify Neville no matter which Police station he was taken to.
Neville’s family and the Aged Care Facility could be immediately notified that he had been found and identified.
The time taken to locate and identify Neville would most likely have been reduced.
Police resources would have been freed up quickly to deal with other needs.

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