We’ve all seen it. A poster in a shop window, or taped to a lamp-post shows a friendly face and the word “missing”. We hope they’ll be okay. We wonder if they chose to leave and how they felt when they did. We worry it could be someone we love next time. Or that it could be us.
Every year, Police Scotland deals with around 30,000 case of people going missing.
Most people are found or return safely, but going missing can be risky and can highlight underlying issues. According to the charity Missing People, up to 80% of people who go missing have mental health problems. Young people who go missing are twice as likely to say that they “often feel depressed” as their peers.
Today the Scottish Government, along with Police Scotland, Shelter Scotland, Barnardos and Missing People, will launch a new strategy for missing people. We hope that addressing and understanding mental health problems will form a key part of the strategy.
We’ll be following @MissingPersonS to hear more from the event, including audio and video clips from their social reporter team.
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