engleski

Urban Search for Missing Elderly Persons in Cities with Continental Features

URBAN SEARCH FOR MISSING ELDERLY PERSONS IN CITIES WITH CONTINENTAL FEATURES Abstract: The disappearance of elderly persons, especially in urban areas should be considered as a security incident of a high degree of risk (ie the risk of self-inflicted or unintentional injury causing death by accident falling from a height or drowning, hypothermia, dehydration, not taking regular medication therapy etc.). The required data (age, gender, place and duration on go missing, ways of finding missing person, its outcome and others) are gathered with the questionnaire consisted of 417 variables, processed and assessed by the descriptive statistical analysis. The content of the presentation is divided into three thematic sections. In order to eliminate misunderstanding, in the first part of the paper the conceptualization of basic terms such as “missing person” , “search” , “terrain examination” , “urban search”, “partnership in search” is provided. The second section is related to the performance of urban search methods for the elderly missing persons in cities with continental features, with the special reference to the City of Zagreb. According to the last census data in Zagreb resides about 15% of persons older than 65. In a five-year period, guided by the police records, around 80 persons disappear in Zagreb per year, making up 20 % of the total number of missing persons in the City of Zagreb. It highlights in particular the organization of search and its planning in relation to the last place where the missing person was seen, or where someone was communicating with the person concerned. In the last part of the presentation the established behavioral patterns of certain groups of elderly missing people are analyzed: persons suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and those at risk of suicide. This knowledge base is supposed to be of a great support and prerequisite for planning and implementation of urban search for missing people. The success of such type of search obviously depends of having knowledge on the aforementioned circumstances and specificities of all participants in the search. It refers especially to the police in a formal sense, because it is the only competent and entrusted authority with the search for missing persons, as well as in real terms, when implementing measures and actions to ensure searching tailored for real situations of the elderly missing persons together with other entities. In this regard the case studies will be presented.

missing person ; elderly missing person ; urban search ; suicide

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