She will probably not remember it. You will. The Alzheimer's Association says never lock a person in at home. Hardware slows the door. It is not a substitute for a person, and it is not the report. Tell her doctor this week, even if she came home unharmed.

How to report a missing parent with dementia in Missouri

Q: How do I report a missing parent with dementia?

Call 911. The Alzheimer's Association says if the person is not found within 15 minutes, call 911 to file a missing person's report and state that the person has dementia. The NIA says to explain that your loved one has dementia. Tell the dispatcher her name, age, last seen, clothing, likely destinations, and that you have a photograph.

Q: What are the three criteria for the Endangered Silver Advisory?

The person is 60 or older and believed to have dementia or other cognitive impairment. A legal custodian has submitted a missing person's report to the local law enforcement agency where the person went missing. There is sufficient information to disseminate to the public that could assist in locating the missing adult.

Q: What should I have ready?

A recent close-up photo, printed and on your phone. Her name, date of birth, height, weight, eye and hair color. What she was wearing, including shoes. The places she talks about going, with addresses. Whether she has a car, a phone, a tracker, or an ID bracelet. The MedicAlert + Alzheimer's Association Safe and Found number if she is enrolled: 800-432-5378.

Q: The Alzheimer's Association's fifteen-minute rule

If the person is not found within 15 minutes, call 911 and file a missing person's report stating the person has dementia. Do not wait until morning. Do not wait until you have driven every street. The people who study wandering say fifteen minutes. You can keep looking after you call. The call is what starts the professional search.

Q: Tell the police on a quiet day

The NIA says to let neighbors and the local police know that the person tends to wander. In Ballwin that is the Ballwin Police Department. In Chesterfield, the Chesterfield Police Department. Use the non-emergency number on a weekday afternoon, ask how they would like to be told next time, and write down what they say.

If she is gone

Missouri does not run a family Silver Alert hotline. You call 911, say she has dementia, and file a missing person report. Local police can then request the Endangered Silver Advisory.

Published 11 September 2026 by the Mom Wanders desk. Each number and named program is cited in the sentence that uses it. Nothing here is medical advice.

You searched "silver alert Missouri how to report a missing parent with dementia" because you need the number to call. There is not a separate Silver Alert number here. The report is 911. The program, on the Missouri State Highway Patrol's pages, is the Endangered Silver Advisory. Local police request it after you file. This page is the reporting path. The first fifteen minutes of searching have their own page. If she is missing right now, search, then call.

Is there a Silver Alert in Missouri?

Other states use that name. Missouri's program is the Endangered Silver Advisory, which the Patrol describes as a voluntary partnership between law enforcement and local broadcasters to rapidly disseminate information about a missing and endangered adult to law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and the public. The Patrol's summary says the program exists to help protect an increasing population of individuals that suffer from dementia or other cognitive impairment, and describes it as a cooperative effort among local and state law enforcement, the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, with voluntary participation by radio and television broadcasters.

You will not find a family hotline on those pages. They are written for law enforcement. You do not activate the advisory. You do not call MoDOT. You do not call a Silver Alert line. You call 911, you say dementia, and you file a missing person report with the department that covers the place she went missing. That report is the switch.

How do I report a missing parent with dementia?

Call 911. Not the non-emergency line, not a chapter helpline, not a neighbor first if fifteen minutes of searching have already passed. The Alzheimer's Association says if the person is not found within 15 minutes, call 911 to file a missing person's report, and state that the person has dementia. The NIA says the same for an emergency call: explain that your loved one has dementia. That word changes how the search is run. In Missouri it is also what makes the advisory possible.

Tell the dispatcher her full name, her age, and that she has dementia or memory loss. Where she was last seen and when. What she was wearing, including shoes, or that she left without them. Where she might be going: the old house, the church, the store, the job. Whether she has a car, a phone, a tracker, or an ID bracelet, and whether she is on foot. That you have a recent photograph ready to send. The NIA says to keep a recent photograph or video of the person to help police if the person becomes lost.

Stay on the number you gave. The officer who takes the report is the person whose department can request the advisory. Filing with the local agency where she went missing is the second criterion, not a formality. If you are still inside the first fifteen minutes, search the house, the yard and the block first. The Association says many who wander are found within 1.5 miles of where they disappeared. Do not wait for a day to pass. The advice from the people who study wandering is fifteen minutes.

What are the three criteria for the Endangered Silver Advisory?

The Patrol lists three, and all three have to be true before the advisory can go out:

The person is 60 years of age or older and believed to be suffering from dementia or other cognitive impairment.
A legal custodian of the missing person has submitted a missing person's report to the local law enforcement agency where the person went missing.
There is sufficient information available to disseminate to the public that could assist in locating the missing adult.

The first is age and the word you already said on the 911 call. If she is under 60, the advisory's age line does not fit. The 911 call and the missing person report still happen, because the Association's fifteen-minute rule is not an age rule.

The second is why you do not call a statewide hotline. The Patrol's wording is legal custodian, and the report has to go to the local agency for the place she went missing. In a west county house that is often Ballwin Police or Chesterfield Police, or whichever department patrols her street. You file. They request. The Patrol's form is their paperwork, not yours.

The third is why the photo, the clothing, the last-seen time and the likely destinations are not extras. They are what can be broadcast. Without them a voluntary broadcaster has nothing to put on the air, and the partnership among law enforcement, MoDOT and DHSS has nothing to disseminate.

What should I have ready?

The NIA says to keep that recent photograph or video, and to let neighbors and the local police know that the person with Alzheimer's tends to wander. The Association says to ask neighbors, friends and family to call if they see the person wandering, and to keep a recent, close-up photo on hand. Coats and keys should already be out of sight on ordinary nights. On the night she is gone, you still need a description of what she was wearing.

A folder by the door, built on a quiet day:

A recent close-up photo, printed, and the same photo on your phone.
Her full name, date of birth, height, weight, eye and hair color.
What she was wearing, including shoes, or that she left without them.
The places she talks about going, with addresses, and the routes she used to walk or drive.
Whether she has a car, and where that car is right now.
The number of her wandering response service, if she is enrolled. The NIA names the MedicAlert + Alzheimer's Association Safe and Found service at 800-432-5378.
The names and numbers of the four neighbors you already told.

Have the photo on your own phone tonight.

The Alzheimer's Association's fifteen-minute rule

The Association's line is exact: if the person is not found within 15 minutes, call 911 to file a missing person's report, and state that the person has dementia. Do not wait until you have driven every street in Ballwin. Do not wait until morning. The people who study wandering say fifteen minutes. You can keep looking after you call. The call is what starts the professional search and what makes the advisory possible. The house-yard-street sequence is on the first-fifteen-minutes page. This page is the call itself, and what the call unlocks in Missouri.

Tell the police on a quiet day

The NIA's advice is short: tell neighbors and the local police before it happens. In practice that is a knock on four doors on her street with a photo and your cell number, and a call to her city's police department on a weekday afternoon. In Ballwin that is the Ballwin Police Department. In Chesterfield, the Chesterfield Police Department. Elsewhere, whichever department patrols her street. Use the non-emergency number on that department's own page. Ask how they would like to be told next time, and write it down. You are not filing a missing person report on that quiet day. You are making the next 911 call faster. The neighbor who walked her home last Tuesday is your early warning. Give her your number. The Association is blunt that neighbors should call.

After she is found

She will probably not remember it. You will. The first night after is the night families reach for a lock as a substitute for a person, and that is the wrong substitute. The Alzheimer's Association's rule is never lock a person in at home. The safe-exit checklist slows the door. Hardware is not the report, and it is not a companion. Call her doctor this week, even if she came home unharmed. The Helpline, 800-272-3900, is free around the clock, 365 days a year, in more than 200 languages. The Missouri Chapter serves 86 counties in Missouri and 10 in Illinois. Aging Ahead remains the county door for a Ballwin or Chesterfield address, one of 10 Area Agencies on Aging in Missouri since 1973.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

Tell her doctor about the episode this week. The NIA lists pain, depression, too little rest, constipation, and medications among the things an exam can find behind a change in behavior, and it says to explain dementia when you call 911 so the responders are not guessing. If she was out in the cold, fell, or was gone for hours, ask whether she should be seen sooner. That decision belongs with the physician.

Paid placement, disclosed

The night after a search, some families in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park and St. Louis want someone awake in the house who is not one of them. New Plan Care Solutions provides non-medical overnight presence: a caregiver near the door and near her room, so the next time the floor creaks at two there is a person there, not only a report you already know how to file. Call (314) 405-0887.

Disclosed feature. New Plan Care Solutions is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, and pays for this placement. It was not ranked against anything on this page.

Keep reading

All the guides.

From the sources on this page

15 minIf the person is not found within 15 minutes, call 911 and state that she has dementia. Age 60+Missouri's Endangered Silver Advisory: 60 or older, believed to have dementia or other cognitive impairment. 1.5 milesMany individuals who wander are found within 1.5 miles of where they disappeared. 800-272-3900Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline, free around the clock, 365 days a year.