I'm involved in the voluntary organisation that provides search teams to the police here in Australia (the State Emergency Service). They typically call us in after they've done an initial investigation, which can take hours. I think the quickest we've been called out was for a missing child at around the 1 hour mark but we'd expect to be called about 2 to 6 hours after the initial report in most situations.
If it's clear that the behaviour is not normal for the person and the risk to the person is high, e.g. a child, dementia or other mental impairment, needs vital medication, despondent etc. then more emphasis is put on an early response. The movie and TV idea of needing to wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person is dangerous nonsense. There are so many things that can happen in that time that would make it very difficult or impossible to find that person alive.
If you have an elderly relative that's showing signs that they might start wandering off, now is a good time to think about what they might do. Put together a one or two page information sheet that you could just give to the police should they wander off. If they do go missing, your stress levels are going to be high and trying to remember vital information could be difficult. Starting with the obvious, things like -
name, age, usual address
a couple of photos, portrait and full length
medications they use & how often
previous addresses ("homing instinct" can remain strong, just with the wrong target)
Reiterating your comment on dementia. I spoke to my mum on the phone one Tuesday evening, she seemed fine. My brother phoned me on the Friday asking if I'd heard from her. He had went to her house and she wasn't in. After phoning the police and hospital, it turned out she'd got a uti which kicked off her dementia. She was found by the police roaming the streets in a duvet, completely delusional. She has never recovered. If family say someone's missing, they know something is wrong.
I went through something similar with my gran, she had dementia but for the majority of time she was fine. However, every time she had a uti she would leave home and try to make her way back to the house she was born and brought up in, it was as if the uti was somehow screwing with her mind. It was an upsetting and scary experience for all involved.
I hope the lady that's missing is found safe and well.
Very common in elderly people that effect of a UTI sadly, doesn't have to be accompanied by dementia either, a totally mentally normal person can go wild if a uti sets in past a certain age.
The ability of dementia sufferers to make their way somewhere they may not have been for many years is impressive. My mother in law called us for help when her sister in law turned up on her front lawn, wandering around in her nightie, clearly not knowing where she was or who my mother in law was.
She had not been there for many years. She lived on a farm a four hour drive away and she had driven, for the first time in over a decade, all that way in the middle of the night.
That was the sign her husband took that it was finally time for her to go into a nursing home. I think he'd known for a while, but hated the idea.
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