Return Discussions to Reduce Missing Incidents in Persons Living with Dementia: Findings from a Scoping Review and Individual Interviews.

Abstract

Persons living with dementia are at risk of becoming lost. While return discussions after missing incidents are common with children, these discussions are seldom done with persons living with dementia. Our objective was to describe the use of return discussions with persons living with dementia according to the literature and practice. We conducted a scoping review using 19 databases to locate scholarly and grey literature on return discussions, followed by 20 semi-structured interviews with first responders and service providers in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). Eleven scholarly and 94 grey sources were included, most from the UK, related to missing children, none included persons with dementia. According to participants, although there was no standardized procedure, there were themes about conditions that facilitate return discussions. This was the first study to examine return discussion practice in dementia, and results can inform development of evidence-based protocols.