This week’s SARNIF blog highlights, Lauren McLennan, a UW Public Health graduate who has been involved with the Aging and Innovation Research program since her final undergraduate co-op term, where she worked as a Research Assistant. Lauren is spearheading the Return Home Interviews SARNIF initiative, which examined part of her undergraduate thesis.
In this thesis she was inspired by the prevalent use of “return home interviews” (also called “return interviews”) with youth in the UK and completed a scoping review that examined the international use of follow-up interviews for missing persons. This review helped shape the initiative she is currently working on where she is interviewing first-responders and service providers about their experiences with returned missing persons living with dementia. The aim of this initiative is to create a Canadian-based practice guide that focuses on follow-up interviews with returned missing persons living with dementia. Lauren believes that “return home interviews” have great potential and application for persons living with dementia in Canada and hopes that they will help to prevent future occurrences and decrease related stresses.
Photograph Credits: Lauren McLennan