Muan Police Launch Civil-Police Participatory Security to Prevent Dementia-Related Disappearances

Collaboration with Social Welfare Council... Muan POL Dodream Project Underway

Muan Police Station (Chief Kang Yong-jun) announced on the 18th that it is currently conducting the "Bringing Dementia Out into the World... Muan POL Dodream Project" in collaboration with the Social Welfare Council (Chairperson Na Min-hee) to detect dementia symptoms early and prevent missing cases of elderly dementia patients in advance.

The project was initiated due to the recent rapid increase in dementia patients caused by aging, but the extremely negative perception associated with the term "dementia (癡?)" leads to refusal of diagnostic tests, resulting in missed opportunities for early treatment of dementia. The project aims to prevent such cases.

Muan Police Launch Civil-Police Participatory Security to Prevent Dementia-Related Disappearances

Providing training on testing methods for care workers.
[Photo by Muan Police Station]

The project utilizes a simple dementia screening test certified by the Central Dementia Center. Noting that 160 life support workers in the jurisdiction have formed bonds with about 1,200 elderly living alone under their care, the police educate the life support workers on how to conduct the simple dementia test. The life support workers then efficiently conduct a full survey by testing the elderly living alone under their management. Those identified are linked to the Dementia Safety Center for accurate diagnostic testing.

Accordingly, Muan Police Station has conducted training on the testing method for life support workers twice and, in collaboration with the Social Welfare Council, secured a budget for 30 smart tags capable of real-time location tracking, among other various policies to prevent missing cases.

Chief Kang Yong-jun stated, "With the number of dementia patients rapidly increasing every year, I hope this policy will help ensure the safety of local elderly and prevent missing cases. We will continue to do our best to build a social safety net through cooperation with related organizations and participatory policing."