Lost and Found Item(s) Report & Labelling Request Form
Lost and Found
We understand that missing items can affect a resident’s quality of life. Going without dentures often means the resident can’t eat regular food. Going without a hearing aid makes a significant impact on a resident’s ability to communicate. Not being able to find new clothing items can cause stress and anxiety. Please help us decrease lost items and increase the chance of their return by doing the following:
- Label all personal items, including watches, dentures, eyeglasses, and hearing aids. Labelling Request Form (PDF)
- Maintain a written inventory of clothing and other valuables
- Take pictures of valuables
- Report the loss as soon as it is noticed. Lost item Report
Once a Lost Item Report is submitted, staff at Pioneer Manor will register the report and begin to look for the missing item. The person who has submitted the report can expect a follow-up call or email, within a week, to advise if there has been any progress with the lost item(s).
For further questions after submitting a Lost Item Report, please email laundry@greatersudbury.ca or call Shelley Lalonde at 705-674-4455 ext. 3000.
Why do items go missing and where do they go?
Content from, “The Mystery of Missing Items in Nursing Homes”, March 5, 2018 by Diane
I remember a time when one of our resident’s dentures disappeared. We turned the place upside down searching for them. A few months later, a housekeeper found the dentures buried in a potted plant. We never thought to look there!
Another time, a brand-new dietary aid nearly died of fright when she saw a lower denture peering out at her from a bowl of oatmeal when she was clearing tables. They could easily have gone down the garbage disposal if nobody saw them.
Missing items are especially challenging in a memory care unit. People living with dementia often reach a stage where they perceive items like glasses and hearing aids as foreign objects, and they no longer want to wear them. A resident might remove their glasses and leave them on a piece of furniture, then another resident comes along and picks them up. Also, I’m sure you’ve discovered memory care residents “shopping” in other residents’ rooms.
For some reason, it’s also fairly common for residents to wrap items in napkins or tissues. Then if nobody thinks to double-check, they get tossed in the garbage.
Sometimes missing or damaged items result from staff errors. One time a PSW at our nursing home put a resident’s hearing aid in her pocket and forgot about it. When she got home, she washed her uniform and destroyed the hearing aid. (Of course, the facility paid for replacement in this case.)
I also remember a couple of times when PSW’s forgot to take residents’ hearing aids out at bedtime. The aids fell out during the night and ended up going to the laundry with the bed linens the next morning.
And then there’s clothing. It’s not uncommon for people to bring new clothing for a resident and forget to mark their name on it. It returns from the laundry and staff have no idea who it belongs to. There are also occasions when a staff person might accidentally put a garment in the wrong resident’s room, especially if the name isn’t clearly marked or if residents have similar names.