Navigating Care From Afar: Ethical Considerations for Police Welfare Checks

Abstract

The clinical practice of contacting law enforcement to perform safety welfare checks for persons who have missed psychiatry appointments is commonly regarded as benign. However, in nonemergency situations, these interventions may carry greater risk than is usually assumed, especially if the person whose welfare is being checked belongs to a racial-ethnic minority group, and there is little evidence on the safety and effectiveness of these interventions. This Open Forum presents a case analysis to examine the central ethical considerations for these situations. Using crisis intervention teams, making repeated phone calls, or using other methods of communication may be clinically and ethically preferable to contacting law enforcement.