University of Waterloo receives funding for dementia search-and-rescue initiative

Delays in finding people with dementia who go missing can result in tragic outcomes. By - Sixty percent of people living with dementia go missing at least once, and among them, some will get lost repeatedly. In Indigenous communities, the rates of dementia are disproportionately higher than in the general Canadian population. That is why the federal government has announced $2.1 million in funding over three years for a search-and-rescue project led by Lili Liu , Waterloo public health researcher and Dean of the Faculty of Health. Called Managing Risks of Going Missing among Persons Living with Dementia by Building Capacities of SAR Personnel, First Responders and Communities, the project will build capacity within the search-and-rescue community and with care partners to work with this population, build partnerships and increase coordination. It builds on the research Liu's team has conducted over the past since 2015 through the AGE-WELL National Centre of Excellence program. "The increasing number of Canadians living with dementia at risk of going missing is a public health concern," said Liu.