How do you define a Missing Person?

[Robert]

Hi all

I am excited by the rate of development in the descision for heroes website, it really is a good point in time for this type of system. The profiling is after some hasty reasearch and by reading this thread a large issue with no quick answer. So here are some questions, treat the as retorical or worth answering its up to you but here goes;

Can a worldwide system that includes maritime and land search have a single Database structure that fits everyone's need or do you need definable Criteria?
Would an organisation such as the POLICE/ALSAR/MCA/UKSAR/MR setup a D4H statistics core database which all D4H teams could API link to?, in this way each organisation could set there own data structure.

Robert

[Daryl]

I would say that stats need to be split up.

I am sure MISPERS act differently on land than water, different in mountains than in lowland areas, differently in the states than in the UK.

[Mojo]

Is this topic still on-going???

[Daryl]

It is if you post something!

[robinb]

It's a tricky one.

I am speaking with Bob from ISRID tomorrow to progress it.

I've seen some of the maritime prediction stuff for MISPER and it's very different due to tides, winds, size of object, how high in the water a body is, etc. The person is generally not in control either.

-Robin.

[Mojo]

Sorry Robert B,

But I certainly would like all the Menal Health Cat split up and any Health related searches - simply putting someone into one or two cat's isn't simple enough. However it doesn't reflect in the stat's accurately enough to be produced the yr or 2 yrs laters as a guide for SM's.

Walkaway cat for example - what exactly does that entail? It is so open that any junior SM or SC can simply tick the box and think it doesn't matter. At present I am keeping my eye on a number of things, but one of them includes 'Stress-Induced' Walkaways. This is completely different to Mental Health, Health or Walkaway catchment groups and within it's own right requires it's own cat.

It's the guy's on the ground who determine the cat. Why not contact a TM within each ALSAR/MR team with a more complex form and teach them how to complete it accurately in order to reflect certain US studies not yet proven in the UK?

Mojo

[Robert Bradley]

Nothing to be sorry about...

I would like to see that too, and even multiple categories. For example, Depression and despondency are quite widespread and under-reported in the over 60's. In many cases mispers who are categorised as walkaways and elderly and dementia can also be depressed and despondent - and so on. The inclusion of multiple categories - a tick box for each, for instance, would add a great deal to the statistics!

Bob Koester even adds to his notes for the ISRID "Of course, I also encourage the use of "other" and then listing. That is how new categories get created"

One of the troubles is that not everyone is so keen on producing the statistics, and even when they are keen, they are not necessarily good at accurately recording the data. All data gathering is usually a balance of these things. However, that is not to say that I wouldn't be keen to work with anyone within a team who does want to produce more accurate data!!

[Mojo]

Bob Koester - Have read a lot of his work.

Understand your comments on mulitple cat's, at least we are looking away from generalising a misper into a false cat only because there is no other they can fit into.

You';ve got my contact details so hopefully we can work towards that common goal, nice to hear other members within ALSAR are looking to move forward as well.

We had a classic (or what we thought?) Mental Health Patient went missing after some bad news, straight away the first thoughts were 'Despondent', only to find her mental health issues were controlled, very well in fact, and she simply just needed time out to think - away from any carers or staff or other patients.

Show's what assumptions do - nothing!!

Take care Robert

Mojo x