TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Navigating care from afar: ethical considerations for police welfare checks JO - Psychiatric services A1 - Vitiello, Evan A1 - Moseley, Daniel D. SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - 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.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1075-2730 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.202000732 ID - ref1 ER -