Setting up a welfare check
If you live alone, or you are older, or your health is unpredictable, you may want someone alerted when you stop responding. That is a different job from writing letters, and it needs a different setup.
Welfare check versus a letter
A letter is for later and is meant to be read once. A welfare check is for now, and it should prompt someone to act rather than to read something.
| Letter | Welfare check | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Long. Written once, released when the window closes, read and kept. | Short. Written once, sent when the window closes, acted on rather than kept. |
Keep the message short
This is not the place for a long letter. The person reading it needs one thing: that you have not been responsive, and they should come and see.
Something like: "I have not checked in today. Could you come round or call, and let me know either way? If you cannot reach me, this is the person to try next." Then name one other person, and what should happen if neither of you answers.
The interval is the whole design
A welfare check only works if it fires at the speed the risk needs. Set it too short and you will train everyone to ignore it. Set it too long and it is not a welfare check any more.
- A frail person living alone. A short window, in the region of a day, with a small grace period. You are checking in often enough that a fall is noticed.
- Someone mostly independent. A longer window. A week of silence is worth a call, not an alarm.
- A health condition that varies. Worth adjusting seasonally rather than setting once. The interval that suits a good month is not the one that suits a bad one.
Make checking in effortless
A welfare check fails for a boring reason more often than a dramatic one: the person did check in, but the check-in did not register, or they forgot, and everyone gets an unnecessary fright.
So make it as easy as possible, and have more than one way. The ping page can sit on a home screen as an icon, so checking in is one tap. A mail link works from the inbox without logging in. A PIN works from someone else device. Logging in can count as a check-in on its own if you turn that on.
Setting two of these up is worth more than any amount of tuning the interval.
What this is not
- It is not a medical alarm. It does not call an ambulance, and it does not detect a fall. It tells a person you named to come and look.
- It is not immediate. Even at the shortest interval there is a window of hours, and then the reminder and grace stages. If you need help within minutes, this is the wrong tool and you need an alarm service.
- It is not proof that you are well. It only knows whether you checked in. Somebody could check in and still need help.
Setting it up
- Agree the arrangement with the person who will check on you. Do not spring it on them by email at the worst moment.
- Write a short message, with a second name to try.
- Set an interval that matches the risk, and a short grace period.
- Add a second check-in route, such as the ping icon on your phone home screen.
- Arm it, and check that the first reminder arrives.
Last updated: 2026-10-19