POTENTIALLY life-saving information for the emergency services can be accessed thanks to 'Message in a Bottle' tubs to be handed out across North Ayrshire.
Police officers attended Inverclyde Sports Centre in Largs for the handover of 300 'Message In A Bottle' tubs.
The tubs are for members of the community living with dementia, and following a local roll-out they will be available across Ayrshire.
Police joined forces with the Largs Dementia Friendly group in the supply of the new emergency tubs.
Each tub contains a Herbert Protocol form - a document that has been used many times to help police and other agencies quickly and safely locate missing people.
Families of a person with the condition are asked to download the Herbert Protocol form and provide information such as places of importance to them, often visited places, health issues and locations they have been found in the past if reported missing, as well as a photo of the person.
Following its introduction in Scotland, the Herbert Protocol has been used many times to trace missing people with dementia and return them home.
The document is an information gathering tool to assist police - designed to be completed by a family member, care giver or friend. Find out more here: https://orlo.uk/T7VZS.
The tubs are usually kept in the fridge, and come with green cross stickers that go on the outside of the fridge to prompt emergency services that vital information is retained within.
Christina Malcolmson, of the Largs Dementia Friendly group, said: "The help bottles are a national scheme used by emergency services.
"Designed to encourage people to keep their personal and medical details on a standard form, along with any repeat prescription, in a bottle within their fridge.
"The bottle initially contains a personal information form and two green cross stickers; one is attached to the outside of the fridge door and the other is attached just inside the front door above the hall light switch.
"If an emergency arises, and the emergency services are called, the green cross above the light switch indicates the presence of the bottle in the fridge."
The bottles are free-of-charge and can be picked up from the following in Largs: Post Office, Largs Medical Centre, various chemists and opticians.
Following the handover the tubs will thereafter be located at venues across Ayrshire for free uplift by the community.
Guy Jenner, preventions and interventions officer for Police Scotland, said: "It means if we have a missing person it gives us the opportunity to get all the information we need and it gives us a huge advantage as time is of the essence."
Largs Dementia Friendly chairman Robbie Stevenson said: "This is brilliant news that the message in a bottle tubs are going to be available across the region, and it is very helpful when the emergency services access this when looking for a missing person, and could make all the difference."
More information about their distribution across Ayrshire will be available on the Police Scotland Facebook page from Friday, November 8.
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