Van Rensselaer Manor holds missing resident search drill

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Van Rensselaer Manor is a 362-bed senior nursing and rehabilitation facility. They currently serve 270 Capital Region residents, 80 are long-term care memory patients.

Saturday morning, they conducted a missing resident drill in collaboration with Rensselaer County law enforcement agencies and K-9s from the Rensselaer County Search and Rescue Team. “If this was an actual missing person, we’d have fire, we’d have state police, drones, we would have everything going including multiple dogs, it would be all hands on deck," Steve McLaughlin, Rensselaer County Executive, said. "You have to keep your skills sharp no matter what."

The bloodhound followed the scent of a volunteer staff member, tracing them to the wooded area neighboring the senior center and locating them before bringing them back to command inside the building. The drill helps facility staff prepare for real-life scenarios. John Wasielewski, Assistant Administrator for Van Rensselaer Manor, said patients who go missing can pose a serious danger to themselves.

“They’re often not properly dressed for the environment," Wasielewski said. "Underclothed be it hot weather, cold weather, or rain, they often want to seek their former homes, they don’t know where those homes are but they want to get there.”

The center has additional preparations in place if a search takes longer than 24 hours. Wasielewski said collaboration between the senior center and law enforcement agency is crucial to successfully find missing residents. “We have additional resources we can count on such as volunteer fire departments, state police, aviation drones that are available to us in case this did become a larger situation," Wasielewski said.