Dear Resident,

It’s 7am on a Friday. You leave your house but something isn’t right. You see an elderly woman wandering around in the road.

You go up to her, she seems very confused and it’s hard to get much out of her. The lady in her 80s seems to know her name but looks spaced out. You think she may have dementia.

She has no phone or bag with her, so you decide to take her into your own home in Stapleford so she isn’t on her own and is no longer walking near a busy road.

Thank you to one man last Friday – because this was his reality. The man called us on 999 saying that he had taken the woman in and together with his wife, kept her calm and safe.

A little while later the man said he and his wife had worked out where the woman lived, which was just a few streets away. A family friend of the woman then collected her and reunited her with her husband.
 

Officers then took steps to speak to the woman’s family about the Herbert Protocol. Have you heard of it?

The scheme encourages family and friends to keep a document that will help officers in the event a loved one goes missing by collating key pieces of information, such as a physical description, familiar places, health details and an up-to-date photo.

It can be incredibly useful and help find people with dementia if they go missing. Feel free to share and help spread the word.

For more information or to fill out a Herbert Protocol form for a loved one or someone you know, visit our dedicated web page.
 

Kind regards,