BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Benton County Search and Rescue is a group of volunteers whose main focus is recognizing the signs of a missing person with dementia. They hold mock searches quarterly to help train their volunteers.
"With dementia patients, they like to go back to what they know. Even though the surroundings may have changed. So, we do a lot of community outreach,” explained Ethan Brown, Deputy Chief for Benton County Search and Rescue.
As search planners, they heavily rely on research studies to help them acknowledge the attributes of dementia patients and people with autism.
"The statistics show that they behave a certain way, have certain tendencies. And so, we really focus on using those to try and make our time to location as short as possible because usually in these cases time is in the essence,” Brown said.
The group broke up into teams to systematically search the area, communicating by radio. The victim was found within the hour, thanks to the help of the K9 unit.
Chief of Benton County Search & Rescue Melissa Middleton has enjoyed volunteering for six years and encourages anyone interested to come to a meeting.
"We have beginners, we have people who have been trained for years, we have older people, we have younger people… we have a place for everybody,” Middleton said.
The group does work with law enforcement upon request and they’re dispatched by the team’s manager. The group meets on the first Wednesday of every month for training at 6:30 p.m. If you want to join the search team or help out in any way, check their Facebook page "Benton County Search and Rescue."
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