Age-old problem for search and rescue
Age-old problem for search and rescue
Age-old problem for search and rescue
Nearly a quarter of all land searches for ‘wanderers’
- The New Zealand Herald
- 13 Jun 2019
- Meghan Lawrence
Patricia Wearn, 73, disappeared without a trace from her home in Torbay on January 16, 2017.
An ageing population is putting stress on the nation’s emergency services, with one in five missing person searches involving people with cognitive impairments.
Statistics showed 23 per cent of all land searches were for wanderers, including people living with conditions such as dementia-related illnesses, autism disorders and intellectual disabilities.
This number was expected to rise as the New Zealand population aged.
Senior Constable Garry Learmonth said there had been a growing number of callouts for elderly people since he joined the Auckland Search and Rescue squad 18 years ago.
“Back in the first days when I joined, most of our searches were people getting lost in the bush.
“But with GPS now, those bush searches are reducing, but because we have an ageing population, it’s changed to the elderly going missing.”
Alzheimers New Zealand principal adviser Jean Gilmour said an older population brought with it an increased risk of dementia.
It was predicted that by 2026 there would be 74,000 people with dementia-related illness in New Zealand, with that number expected to more than double by 2050.
“What happens with diseases like Alzheimer’s is you can lose the stability to be orientated towards place, and the ability to way-find or navigate around,” Gilmour said.
In the past two years, the Herald has reported on at least five major searches for missing people with cognitive impairments.
● John Kohi Mohi, 77, was last seen on February 11, 2019, when he did not return from his daily walk. His body was found five days later. The Maketu¯ man had dementia.
● Raymond Stirling, 84, went missing on January 15, 2018. His body was found a month later. The Hamilton man had mild dementia.
● Nigel Peterson, 33, went missing on November 17, 2017, after he was moved by caregivers from his flat. He was in fulltime care as he suffered
from psychosis and autistic symptoms.
● Maree Wilkins, 85, went missing from an Auckland resthome where she was receiving care for dementia on November 7, 2017.
● Patricia Wearn, 73, disappeared without a trace from her home in Torbay on January 16, 2017.
Finding those who are lost
Learmonth said generally when someone with a cognitive impairment went missing, searchers always checked the residence first.
“If they are in a resthome, one of the first things we do is check the village — because they could just be down the hallway. Then we would search all the high-risk areas, for example lakes or bush in the area, then we would continue spreading out from there and searching all the areas,” he said.
Another factor taken into mind when searching for someone with dementia was anywhere they had lived before, he said.
“Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients do have a tendency to remember the past and there is quite a common theme for them to want to go home, so we always ask for previous addresses.”
Tracking programme a ‘huge time saver’
In order to combat increasing demand, the New Zealand Search and Rescue (NZSAR) Council developed the Safer Walking Partnership Framework, and a tracking technology known as WanderSearch.
WanderSearch is a radio frequency tracking device for people who are at risk of going missing.
LandSAR national safer walking co-ordinator Clare Teague said the device was a little beacon, the size of a watch, that could be worn as a pendant, wrist device or belt clip.
“They give off a radio frequency signal every two seconds, so if the person goes missing, you give that frequency to police.
“They use a receiver and a directional aerial to listen to the beep at that frequency, and the closer you get to the pendant the louder the signal becomes.
“The people who do the searches are trained to find these signals and can quite quickly pick up on where that device is,” she said.
Learmonth said a normal search for a person missing in an urban environment was seven or eight hours, but if they were wearing one of the devices it was less than an hour. “When WanderSearch devices came on board, they cut the search time down to an average of an hour, with one to two people with a tracking device. So not only do we save manpower, we save time and money,” he said.
Learmonth said that in the past week alone Auckland police had been called out to look for four missing people with WanderSearch pendants. “Two of them we tracked with the device and located them, the other two were found by members of the public quite quickly,” he said.
For more information on WanderSearch go to wandersearchnz.org.nz.