# Impact of a police safeguarding program on reducing dementia-related missing incidents in the United Kingdom

## TL;DR

A UK police safeguarding program for people with dementia reduced missing incidents and improved response times, especially for high-risk individuals.

## Contribution

Demonstrates the effectiveness of a proactive police safeguarding program in reducing dementia-related missing incidents.

## Key findings

- Fewer missing incidents occurred after individuals joined the safeguarding scheme.
- High-risk individuals were 81.21% less likely to go missing again after participating.
- Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease were more likely to go missing post-enrollment than those with vascular dementia.

## Abstract

People living with dementia are at increased risk of missing episodes, which can have serious safety consequences for the individual as well as increasing burden for families, emergency services, and care services. A UK police safeguarding scheme was developed in response to reduce the risk of missing incidents through proactive risk management and early intervention. This study evaluates whether the safeguarding scheme effectively reduces the risk of missing incidents for individuals taking part in the scheme.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a police database of 846 individuals living with dementia taking part in the safeguarding scheme. Descriptive statistics and proportion comparisons were used to evaluate changes in missing incident characteristics before and after joining the scheme, stratified by risk level and dementia subtype.

We found that there were fewer missing incidents and fewer individuals with a recorded missing episode after joining the safeguarding scheme. Individuals with first missing incidents occurring after joining the scheme were found significantly faster (2.73 hours) than those with a first incident occurring before joining the scheme (5.39 hours). Among those identified as high-risk—individuals with a previous missing incident—81.21% did not go missing again after participating in the scheme. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease were more likely to go missing after taking part in the safeguarding scheme than those with vascular dementia. While individuals with a history of missing incidents remained at higher risk, the majority did not go missing again after joining the scheme.

Overall, the safeguarding scheme was effective in reducing the rate of missing incidents among people with dementia. These findings promote the proactive use of police safeguarding programs and suggest that widespread implementation could improve safety and independence for people living with dementia.