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Missing piece of missing person jigsaw Inspector Steve Scott deals with the impacts of dementia and other cognitive impairments in both his professional and personal life. That’s because Insp Scott not only oversees the WA Police Force’s Emergency Operations Unit, which conducts searches aimed at locating missing persons, but also is the son of a dementia patient diagnosed with the condition eight years ago.
22 POLICE NEWS MARCH 2022
Insp Scott’s experiences, in both the Emergency Operations Unit at its Maylands headquarters and the living room of his parents’ Armadale home, inspired him to create Safe & Found WA, which our member describes as “a low-cost insurance policy that, when everything else in your safety plan fails, will come to your loved one’s rescue.” According to Dementia Australia WA, the state branch of the nation’s peak body for people whom dementia impacts, the condition is the second leading cause of Australian deaths. Dementia Australia WA estimates more than 35,000 Western Australians are living with the condition, and without a medical breakthrough, forecasts that number to double by 2050. Approximately 70% of Western Australians with dementia live in the community. Insp Scott’s 78-year-old father, Bernie, joined the ranks of Australia’s officially diagnosed dementia patients in 2014.
