People who are living alone or family members concerned about relatives with aged-related illnesses have two options which they can use to help ensure police can respond quickly in the case of an emergency. The NSW Police runs a Next of Kin Register which enables people living alone, whether elderly or not, to record their details at their local police station.

The register holds information of their nominated next of kin, doctors and dentist details and any medical alerts. this information assists ambulance and police in an emergency situation to contact a relative or other nominated person.

People on the register receive a key ring and a sticker to be placed on their home phone which alerts emergency services to the fact they are registered with the Next of Kin Program. There is no cost associated with registering with this program.  people also have the option of registering with the Safely Home data base, which is jointly run by Alzheimer’s Australia and the NSW Police.  When a person was registered with Safely Home they received a personalized stainless steel bracelet to wear at all times. The bracelet was virtually impossible to remove without assistance.  The bracelet has a toll free telephone number and a personal identification number linked to the NSW Police Safely Home data base. The data base contains a detailed description of the person, contact information, previous residential addresses and other locations the person may visit.  People who registered with this service also had their photograph included in the data base so police could give the photo to the media in the case of an emergency.

when someone found a lost person they could look at the bracelet and then call the police and quote the identification number. This would then enable the police to safely return the person to their home.

For further information attend your local police station or fill in the attached form.

Next_of_Kin_Register.pdf