‘Message in a Bottle’ initiative to be rolled out across Leicestershire

A ‘MESSAGE in a Bottle’ scheme is to be rolled out across Leicestershire.

The partnership, which includes the Community Safety Partnership in Oadby and Wigston, the police and the Lions, have ambitious plans to get a ‘message in a bottle’ into the home of every elderly or vulnerable person across the force area to ensure their emergency medical details can be accessed quickly by emergency responders should they be needed.

The project combines two existing schemes:

• The Herbert Protocol is a national scheme which has been adopted by some police forces in the UK which encourages family, friends and carers to put together useful information which can then be used if a person with dementia goes missing. It contains vital information such as medication required, mobile numbers and places previously visited.

• The Lions ‘Message in a Bottle’ scheme is a simple idea to encourage everyone to keep their personal and medical details on a standard form in a common location – the fridge. This scheme includes people with serious medical conditions such as life threatening allergies and not just the elderly.

Combining the two projects means vital and useful information is kept on one form in one location making it easy for responders dealing with an emergency.

The bottles are kept in the fridge and a sticker is placed on the inside of the front door and on the fridge door.