Just as we have the Amber Alert system for missing or abducted children, a new smartphone application (app) is being developed at the University of Waterloo to help locate missing people with dementia.
The new alert is called Community ASAP.
Noelannah Neubauer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health Sciences, is leading the research team. She said Community ASAP can be regarded as a key tool for providing an alert for older adults or persons with dementia who are discovered to be missing.
"We have Amber Alerts for missing children, but nothing for this population other than police and civilians circulating information via social media such as Twitter and Facebook,” said Neubauer, who is the lead author of a peer-reviewed study that tested the efficacy and useability of Community ASAP, in the study.
"The number of missing person incidents involving persons living with dementia has been on the rise in recent years. The consequences associated with missing persons with dementia include injuries, exposure to extreme temperatures, dehydration and death. If not found within 24 hours, up to half of individuals who get lost succumb to serious injury or death," said the study.
This also highlighted the reasoning that response time is critical, with family members, friends, neighbours and even shop owners can join in the search effort.
Part of Neubauer's research also included a case study with Ontario first responders done in 2020 to measure the gaps in search procedures involving persons with dementia.
"It is estimated that approximately 40 per cent of those diagnosed with dementia will become lost at some point in their disease progression. Thus, searches that involve missing persons with dementia in Canada will increase with the rising national prevalence of dementia. It has been reported that missing persons with dementia typically continue to ‘go until they get stuck,’ which differs from other vulnerable groups. As a result, search and rescue (SAR) strategies for persons with dementia may differ from other populations," said that report.
The system works by having volunteers sign up to help monitor up to five familiar neighbourhoods.
As a volunteer signs on for Community ASAP, he or she will install the smartphone app that alerts them when a person is missing in or around their area.
Researchers discovered that in many cases, when an elderly person was missing, that person was often seen in a neighbourhood, but nothing was said because no one thought the person was lost.
With the new alert system, a description of the missing person is provided to volunteers who can then monitor their areas for that missing person.
The study said it would not work to piggyback onto the existing Amber Alert system because too many seniors are reported missing on a regular basis. The report said nearly 750,000 Canadians live with dementia. It is estimated that 60 per cent of them wander away at least once, and some repeatedly.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com. He covers health care in Northern Ontario.
