ACCIDENTS INVOLVING DEMENTIA PATIENTS

[Anchor Lead]

Senile dementia, also referred to as Alzheimer’s disease, has become commonplace in Korea, so much so that one out of every 10 senior citizens is said to be senile. More concernedly, dementia-related missing person cases are increasing dramatically. How can we prevent people with dementia from going missing and how do we respond when they do? We take a look.

[Pkg]

A 78-year-old man is handed over to the police. Off-duty firefighters heard that an old man was walking dangerously on a five-lane motorway and reported him to the police after ascertaining that the man suffered from dementia.

[Soundbite] Jeong Seung-mi(Firefighter, Mugeo 119 Safety Center, Ulsan Nambu Fire Station) : "His speech was jumbled when we were trying to talk to him or see his ID tag. Since he didn’t have an ID tag, we believed he was a dementia patient and reported him to the police."

The number of people with dementia increased by nearly 100,000 in just two years here in the nation, from around 770,000 in 2018 to roughly 860,000 in 2020. Last year police received some 12,000 reports of elderly people with dementia going missing. As more senior citizens suffer from this disease, measures to prevent them from getting lost have also become important. They must be fitted with ID tags or bracelets that can identify them or GPS trackers that can trace their locations. It will also be helpful to register their fingerprints with the police in advance. Experts recommend using dementia-related apps that can help keep track of their locations. But most importantly, the public at large should pay more attention to people suffering from dementia, as it can affect anyone.

[Soundbite] Kim Sung-ryul(Director, Ulsan Metropolitan Dementia Center) : "If you find senior citizens who wander around the same place for a prolonged period, please report them to the police immediately. That would be a big help in finding a missing dementia patient."

There is clearly a growing need for new safety systems as well as increased awareness and care by everyone, to help the growing population of seniors with dementia.