Neighbourhood Return, the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network project which uses community volunteers to search for people with memory problems who have gone missing, has just received funding from Thames Valley Police to expand its pilot area to include Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.

They are contacting us to ask if you would please consider volunteering to help search for people with memory problems who have gone missing.  All you need is a mobile phone, the ability to text, and to be 18 or over.   They would not expect you to get called upon very frequently to assist.

If you agree to assist,  the project’s call centre will contact you if someone with dementia goes missing in your local area to see if you are available to help look for them.  If you are, they will text you the details of the person you are looking for and give you instructions on where to search.  If you are contacted, you can always text back ‘no’ if you are not in the area, or are not available.  You can also join or leave the search at any point by contacting the call centre.  Searches never last longer than two-and-a-half hours, after which time Thames Valley Police take over.

Your help would be greatly appreciated even if you work full time – you may do shift work or be prepared to search after work or on days off.  To ensure the success of the project they need as many people as possible to opt in, so that they can be sure there are enough people to search.  Please do consider opting in to the Neighbourhood Return project and helping to support carers of people with dementia in our area and don’t forget to spread the word amongst friends and neighbours in our locality too.  You can join the scheme directly through the Neighbourhood Return website: www.ourturn.org.uk