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To find a missing person, it is necessary to understand his psychological characteristics, to predict his actions and behavior. That is why the volunteer search and rescue team «Lisa Alert» has volunteer psychologists. On December 5, Volunteer Day, one of them shares his story.
For everyone — his own search
In the process of searching, there are many moments when it is necessary to take into account the psychology of a person. Coordinators need to understand the behavior of the missing person: what to expect from him, what happened to him at the moment he disappeared, and how he will behave when he is found. Psychology also helps to understand the behavior of the relatives of the missing and their reactions. Each search is based on certain techniques, the experience of the detachment, the analysis of past cases and information about the missing person.
Let me give you an example of one of the search techniques: if we are looking for a child in the forest, a girl must be present in each search group to call the child with a female voice — from experience, the baby will more readily respond to the voice of “mother”. But there may be reasons why a child, on the contrary, will react only to a male voice. All the features of a particular person are recognized by the coordinator at the initial stage of the search and, based on them, he already corrects the methods.
We remember those we were looking for
I joined the squad in 2013 as a searcher. Then there were much fewer searches themselves, and those who are engaged in them. The squad developed quickly. Over time, it became clear that a separate direction was needed to support volunteers and improve their psychological literacy. Now I don’t travel much in search and am mainly engaged in the work of this direction — training and advising volunteers.
All searches leave their mark on the memory, but, perhaps, each of us has his own, especially memorable story. For me, this is the search for Professor David Yakovlevich Tamarchak. He disappeared in the center of Moscow in 2014, we were looking for him for a month. And when found, it turned out that he was admitted to the hospital the day after the loss and died there two weeks later. Relatives saw information about the unknown grandfather on social networks two weeks after his death.
Unfortunately, even now, five years later, if a missing person ends up in the hospital, this does not necessarily mean that the search is over. We are still faced with the fact that people with memory impairments and children without parents can be in medical institutions as unknown, while their relatives, and we continue to search. And the hospital does not give any information about them.
So far, we do not have a unified federal database of unknown patients in our country that would allow us to quickly find missing people in hospitals. But for several years we have been cooperating with the state in this direction, and I would like to believe that the situation will change soon.
Advice for beginner searchers
Both novice search engines and those who have been in the Liza Alert squad for a long time, I always advise you to take good care of yourself. Finding missing people is an interesting and important activity, but physically and psychologically difficult.
Volunteers experience colossal workloads, they can stay awake for a long time, forget to eat, perform difficult tasks. And we are talking about those who go to the place, and those who help remotely. Unfortunately, searches do not always bring the desired result, some of them remain unfinished for a long time.
We do everything that depends on us, but it is important to take care of ourselves, to find time for rest. When I first joined the detachment, it seemed to me that only professionals work there. But it turned out that everyone can help. For everyone who comes to search, there is a task.
Beginners are accompanied, trained on the spot, they are helped and prompted. Even on the very first search, the likelihood that something will go wrong for a newly joined volunteer is minimal.
Project «FOUND_ALIVE»
Volunteers, who are just starting to work with us, first try to take a closer look, to understand how everything works inside the detachment. The interactive web series «FOUND_ALIVE» is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in activities, «visit» the search without leaving your home.
It is especially valuable that, along with the actors, our search engines and coordinators participate in the filming — those who can be found on the search. Such distance learning helps new volunteers to orient themselves and connect to our work.
In my opinion, an interactive project inspires caring people to join the squad. And he also tells all viewers how to behave in order not to get lost, and what to do if you still find yourself in such a situation.
You don’t wish this situation on anyone, but it’s useful for everyone to know what to do when a person goes missing. First of all, you need to notify the police and contact the detachment by calling the hotline 8-800-700-54-52 or leave a request on the Lisa Alert website.
To get acquainted with the activities of the detachment and even feel like a real search engine, go through the interactive version of the first season of the FOUND_ALIVE web series on . In it, volunteers rescue the boy Kostya, lost in the forest.
And in 2021, the release of the second season of the series is expected, in which the search engines will be faced with the task of saving teenagers who have run away from home. The role of the protagonist — the coordinator of the search for Leshy, as in the first season, will be performed by theater and film artist Artur Smolyaninov.
In the continuation of the project, there will again be many exciting interactive mechanics, thanks to which each viewer will be able to control the actions of the characters and predetermine the further development of the plot.