The police conducted an experiment on the street as part of a social campaign. The officers wanted to check if any passers-by would notice an elderly lady in a bathrobe who looked lost. Will they take care of her and help her? Older people often lose orientation in time and space. Their salvation is the observance and sensitivity of strangers who come up and ask questions.
Mrs. Barbara Jaros was asked by junior inspector Małgorzata Puzio-Broda to take part in a street test on human sensitivity. – As part of the #JestTuCZEKAM social campaign, dedicated to the disappearance of seniors, we conducted a social experiment – reports Małgorzata Puzio-Broda from the Police Headquarters.
For two hours, the lost woman wandered the street in a bathrobe, while a hidden police camera monitored the reactions of passers-by. Will anyone be interested, stop by, ask questions and offer help?
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The entire action was invented by Puzio-Broda. – We cooperated with the social communication office from us at the Police Headquarters. My colleagues simply helped me a lot to run this campaign, he says.
Seniors who have become prisoners of their own homestvn24.pl
What to pay attention to?
The spot prepared by the police shows how big a problem we have – few people, considering wandering around a busy street for two hours, were interested in a woman in a bathrobe and flip-flops on a cold day. – As a society, we are not particularly sensitive. (…) I think this is largely due to the pace at which we live – says Izabela Jezierska-Świergiel, vice-president of the “Itaka” Foundation.
Every reaction has potential consequences: you will have to take time, call for help, and wait for help. However, the organizers of the campaign encourage street sensitivity, because it can happen to anyone, including our loved ones.
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What may be a disturbing signal is not the clothes, but the behavior. – First of all, the fact that this person is looking around so uncertainly, trying to go back and forth, looking for his place, looking for his way, and he can't find it. Such symptoms should draw our attention to the fact that this person is clearly lost – points out Zygmunt Wierzyński, president of the Association of Alzheimer's Associations Poland.
The good news is that during two hours of the experiment and the indifference of dozens of people, there were seven people who stopped. When one woman decided to help, the inspector appeared. – On behalf of the Polish police, I would like to thank you for your civic attitude – says Małgorzata Puzio-Broda.
The police register the disappearances of approximately two thousand elderly people every year. In reality, this number is much higher because such cases are often not reported to the police.
Main photo source: Polish Police