One man in his pyjamas

Dear Resident,

It’s way past 9pm at night. You come across an elderly man in his pyjamas, who can tell you his name but nothing else. He doesn’t know where he is or how old he is.

You keep him safe while on the phone to police, and thanks to a clever scheme, officers are able to find his details within minutes and get to work on reuniting him with family.

This was the reality for one woman In East Cambridgeshire recently – and we’d like to publicly thank her for her kindness and compassion, and noticing something was not quite right. 

The clever scheme? It’s called the Herbert Protocol, that can help us find people with dementia if they go missing.

We’re encouraging family and friends of people living with dementia to fill out our online Herbert Protocol form that collates key pieces of information, such as a physical description, familiar places, health details and an up-to-date photo.

On the form you can also register your interest for one of our yellow dementia wristbands – which store the name and contact details of a wearer’s next of kin so that if someone gets lost, members of the public can quickly access contact details and reunite them - often taking away the need to call police.

More than 500 people have now filled out our Herbert Protocol form online, proving invaluable in stories like this one. 

For more information and to do the same, see the Herbert Protocol page on the force website.

Kind regards,