People living with dementia are one of the largest groups reported missing. The aim of the ISOLDE project is to increase safety for these persons and their relatives. It is a practice-oriented collaborative project that, in addition to generating new knowledge, focuses on developing more effective collaborative procedures and methods before, during, and after a disappearance. The project is conducted in close collaboration with municipal eldercare, the Swedish Dementia Centre, and the Police.

The project is expected to contribute with new knowledge about the search process before, during, and after a disappearance. More specifically, we hope to develop new models for collaboration between eldercare and the Police in order to increase safety and thereby improve the living conditions of older people living with dementia and their relatives. In the long term, the ambition is that experiences from the project can be used to develop corresponding procedures and collaborative models for other groups at risk of going missing, for example people with mental ill health, and children and youths in socially vulnerable situations.

Publications

Larsson, M., Wolmesjö, M., Andersson, H., & Svensson, A. (2026). Key Factors for Locating Missing Persons Living with Dementia: A Delphi Study Among Swedish Police Experts. Nordic Journal of Studies in Policing, 13(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.18261/njsp.13.1.1

Larsson, M., Årestedt, K., Svensson, A. et al. Missing incidents and the risk of harm in persons living with dementia reported to the Swedish police– A nationwide retrospective registry study. BMC Geriatr 25, 153 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-025-05809-9

Stenberg, R. & Wolmesjö, M. (2023) Preparative collaboration for missing persons with dementia in Sweden: a pilot study. International Journal of Emergency Services Emerald Publishing Limited 2047-0894 DOI 10.1108/IJES-09-2020-0054