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A wellness check (also known as a welfare check or a Safe and Well check) is an in-person visit from one or more law enforcement officers, especially in response to a request from a friend or family member who is concerned about the person's wellbeing.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Reasons for wellness checks

A wellness check may be conducted if a person's loved one has stopped responding, someone with suicidal tendencies has been acting suspiciously, or someone has deviated from regular plans in a concerning manner.^[3] Usually, a wellness check is requested for law enforcement to confirm the safety of an elderly loved one. In some circumstances, a wellness check is used for concerned bystanders on the accounts of suspected domestic violence or substance abuse.^[5]

By country

Canada

In Canada, in addition to feeding information back to the individual that requested the check, descriptions of what happened during these wellness checks as well as details of the surrounding area are listed on the Subject Behavior/ Officer Response (SB/OR) report. This report is often used for Canadian policy development.^[6]

In order to respond to wellness calls, officers have to be properly and extensively trained for any task that may occur during a wellness check. For example, they have to be fully aware of alarming health signs related to both physical and mental unwellness.^[6] This training ensures that all wellness check requests and operations are performed in a uniform way, as officers must always follow direct protocol.^[6] Extensive mental illness training is provided to officers online through a program called Crisis Intervention and De-escalation (CID) training. This training is mandatory for all officers.^[6]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, following a request for a "Safe and Well" check, police are required to locate people at risk of harm and seek to manage any safeguarding risks. Police officers are required to establish a person's location and ascertain whether the individual is alive, breathing, and conscious but are limited to finding an individual, calling for medical assessment of people who are found where necessary, and feeding back this information to the person or organization that has requested the check.^[7]

In the United Kingdom, if law enforcement receives no response during a wellness check after knocking on the subject's door, they are lawfully able to search about the subject's property.^[8]

United States

In the United States, if law enforcement receives no response during a wellness check after knocking on the subject's door, they are lawfully able to search about the subject's property.^[9]^[3]

This is hazardous duty. According to a March 2024 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, "Calls to police to check on the well-being of individuals were 74 percent more likely to be associated with fatal injury than police responses to an incident where shots had already been fired. This includes wellness checks that did not explicitly involve threats or harm before an encounter with police."^[10] (Furthermore, as per the National Institute of Health 33 percent of deaths occur at home; such deaths which are unattended require an investigation by a coroner.^[11]

Notable occurrences

In 2018, American comedian Pete Davidson posted a message to his Instagram that led fans to be concerned for his mental well-being. The New York Police Department conducted a wellness check with Davidson.^[12]

Also in 2018, actress Vanessa Marquez was shot and killed by police in a wellness check requested by a neighbor; in mental distress, she had advanced on them with a replica of a gun, begging them to kill her.^[13]

In 2024 computer scientist Ward Christensen, inventor of the BBS, was found deceased in his home after his friends requested a wellness check. ^[14]

In November of 2024, police found 26-year-old OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji dead in his apartment in San Francisco, California, United States when they arrived there to conduct a wellbeing check.^[15]