The annual campaign, which runs from August 3-9 this year, will focus on raising the awareness of dementia, a mental illness affecting around one in 15 Australians over 65.
"There is nothing like sharing the good news with an anxious family member that their relative has been found," the director of the Christian charity's Family Tracing Service, Major Lyndal Barker, said.
"Each and every reunion is a unique experience in itself, with each of them covering the gamut of human emotions – love, pain and hurt."
The group works to reunite around 40 families every week, revealing that the most frequent requests came from adult 'children' seeking their mother, father or siblings.
"In many cases people have been waiting for years to make contact with their loved ones," Barker revealed.
The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service receives around 2,000 search requests each year, including adoption related cases in NSW and Queensland.
"We are one of the oldest family tracing (missing persons) services in Australia," Barker stated. "The service has networks in over 100 nations around the world."
National Missing Persons Week was launched in Canberra, with events and community connections scheduled across the country. For more information visit missingpersons.gov.au.
To contact the Salvation Army Family Tracing Service visit salvos.org.au/familytracing
