New system for missing persons

Amendments to the Accountability Principles 1998, requiring all approved providers of aged care services to report any case of missing residents when they decide that the person is missing without explanation and have notified police, came into effect on 1 January 2009.

All approved providers were issued with a guide outlining their obligations to report to the Department where they are sufficiently concerned to have reported a resident as missing to the police. The guidelines indicate the process for making a report to the Department, including that the report must be made within 24 hours of reporting to the police.

Residents are free to come and go from homes, and that systems must be in place to enable the home to know when a resident has gone out and when they are expected to return.

Where a person does not return as expected, or went missing without explanation, it is the responsibility of the police and the facility to search for the resident, and the responsibility of the facility to check their systems to determine how the resident went missing without being detected.

Between 1 January and 26 March 2009, the Department has received 156 reports. Upon receipt of a report, the Department investigates to determine whether appropriate action has been taken by the approved provider in respect of the missing resident.

This would include that the person’s absence was detected early, the appropriate search was undertaken, if the absence was unexplained, that family and police notified and whether there are adequate systems and processes in place to ensure other residents’ safety.

Cases are only finalised when the Department has been able to establish that the resident has been found and has confirmed that the service has appropriate systems and processes in place.