Faith community preparedness ยท Wellness checks
Wellness Checks Without Violating Privacy
Find out whether someone got the message and needs a connection, without building a file on them.
In a heat wave, a cold snap or a long outage, the neighbors most at risk are often the ones nobody sees. A faith community can organize wellness check calls to people who have asked for them. This guide shows how to make a promise you can keep, collect almost nothing, give every caller the same script, and send urgent concerns to the right place.
General U.S. guidance. This is a contact and referral service, not medical monitoring, emergency dispatch, counseling or case management. Have local counsel and your safeguarding lead review the program.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
The five-minute answer
A wellness check makes one narrow promise and keeps it.
A wellness check is a phone call, a text or a knock on the door during a heat wave, a deep freeze, an outage or a storm. Someone the person already knows asks whether they got the news and whether they need a connection to help.
The promise has to be small enough to keep every time:
"During the named event, an assigned volunteer will try to reach you at the agreed times, share verified information, and pass any request to our coordinator. In an emergency we will call 911."
This is a contact and referral service. It is not medical monitoring, counseling, case management or proof that someone is safe.
Our estimate: about two hours to set up for twenty enrolled people, a one-hour caller training, and ten to fifteen minutes per caller per day while an event is active. The cost is printing and volunteer time. A small congregation can start with one supervisor, two callers and a handful of enrollees under the same rules.
It can do
Confirm contact, repeat verified information, take a request for a referral and tell the supervisor when the script says to.
It cannot prove
That a person is medically well, safe from harm or supplied for the event. One answered call shows only that the call was answered.
It should collect
Preferred name, how and when to make contact, the language that works for them, one plain instruction for the caller, an optional backup contact, and the consent dates.
It should not collect
Diagnoses, medication lists, counseling notes, immigration details, finances, family history, rumors or a volunteer's opinions.
Why it is worth doing
The people at greatest risk are often the ones who stay home.
CDC's advice for hot weather is to check on family, friends and neighbors, especially those who live alone or have chronic medical problems.[5] Its review of cooling centers explains why a phone call matters: the people most at risk often cannot get to a cooled building because they have no ride or cannot leave home.[6]
The same review reports that social networks were particularly protective of older people during the 1995 Chicago heat wave.[6] A faith community is a social network that already exists. A check-in program gives it a schedule and a safe way to act on what it hears.
Ready.gov gives the matching advice to individuals: create a support network of people who can help you in a disaster.[3] Your program is one way to be on someone's list.
The sequence, start to finish
Write the service promise
One sentence that says which events, how often, by what method and what the caller will and will not do.
Enroll people who ask for it
Explain the service, record consent and collect only the contact details and instructions a caller needs.
Train callers on one script
The opening, three questions, the outcome codes and the escalation card, practiced aloud.
Activate with a supervisor
Issue the current list, track every assignment and take every escalation.
Close out and delete
Tell enrollees the check-ins have ended, report totals without names, collect the lists and delete what the purpose no longer needs.
FEMA's self-assessment for faith organizations asks whether contact lists for members are current and what type of communications system is used, for example a messaging app, a phone tree or amateur radio.[12] A wellness check program answers both, for the people who opt in.
The privacy test
Collect only what the call requires.
The privacy principle federal agencies work under is called minimization. NIST's glossary defines it as limiting the collection, use, storage and sharing of personal information to what is directly relevant and necessary for a legally authorized purpose.[1] It also means keeping that information only as long as the purpose needs.[1]
Open this sectionClose this section: The privacy test
That definition was written for government systems, not congregations. It is still the right test. Before adding a line to the form, name the action it supports. If no caller, supervisor or partner will act on the answer, leave it off.
A member directory does not become a support list because an emergency started. Enrollment is a separate, voluntary yes.
This guide makes no claim about which privacy, health-information or reporting laws apply to your institution. Ask counsel, and build the program so the answer matters as little as possible: hold very little, for a short time, in few hands.
Our examples: write the instruction, not the reason
The left-hand answers let a caller do the job. The right-hand answers describe a person, and a list of them is a map of who is alone and unwell. Do not create that list.
Enrollment
Explain the service before you record a yes.
Invite everyone the same way, through the bulletin, the announcements and a sign-up table. Do not approach individuals because someone thinks they look frail. People enroll themselves, or a family member enrolls them with their knowledge.
Open this sectionClose this section: Enrollment
What to say
"We offer a voluntary check-in during certain local emergencies, such as a heat wave or a long outage. A volunteer you can name will contact you the way you choose, share official information and pass on any request to our coordinator. It is not an emergency or medical service. If we believe you are in danger we will call 911. You can change or end this at any time."
What to record
- preferred name
- contact method, language and times
- one plain instruction for the caller
- a backup contact, if they want one, who has agreed
- what to do if we cannot reach you
- consent date and the date we will ask again
- who can see the record, and how to withdraw
What happens if we cannot reach you
Ask this at enrollment and write down the person's own answer. Choices include trying the backup contact, asking a named neighbor to knock, or taking the next step your escalation card allows after a set number of tries.
Their answer becomes the rule for their record. It is much easier to act on a choice the person made than to guess on the day.
Official registries are a separate thing
The Department of Justice describes voluntary, confidential registries of people with disabilities as a tool for state and local governments planning evacuations.[2] Ready.gov tells individuals that many city and county emergency management agencies keep voluntary registries, and to contact the local office.[3]
Your list is not one of those, and it carries none of a government registry's authority or protections. Tell enrollees about the official registry and let them decide whether to join it. Do not sign anyone up yourself.
Renew it
Ask again every year and after any change in the person's circumstances that they tell you about. Remove anyone who does not answer the renewal. An old list sends callers to wrong numbers and keeps information about people who never agreed to another year.
The call
Give every caller the same short script.
Most people find these calls awkward the first few times. A script fixes that. It also keeps a kind volunteer from drifting into advice they are not equipped to give.
Check the assignment
Today's list, today's event, the name of the supervisor on duty, the supervisor's number and which phone to call from. Settle that last point in training: a personal number given out once is hard to take back.
Say who you are
Your first name, the institution and why you are calling. Ask whether now is a good time.
Ask three questions
Did you get the current information? Is there anything you need today? Would you like the coordinator to connect you with someone?
Follow the card
If anything matches the escalation card, do what the card says. Do not improvise.
Record a code
Outcome code, time and next action. No narrative. Tell the supervisor about any escalation right away.
Opening script
"Hi, this is [first name] from [institution], calling for the check-in you signed up for because of [the heat this week]. Is now a good time? I wanted to make sure you saw that [verified fact: the cooling room at the library is open until 8]. Is there anything you need today? I can pass a request to our coordinator. I am not able to give medical advice."
What a caller does not do
- diagnose, or suggest starting, stopping or changing a medicine
- promise a delivery, a ride or a visit the coordinator has not confirmed
- ask about health, money or family beyond the three questions
- pass on what they heard to anyone but the supervisor
- keep the list, a screenshot or their own notes after the shift
Share only verified information
The supervisor gives callers two or three facts for the day, taken from the emergency management office, the health department or the utility, with the time they were checked. Callers repeat those and nothing else. The emergency communications guide covers how to choose and confirm them.
Escalation
Write the decision down before the difficult call.
Every caller carries one card with four levels. Your institution writes it with local emergency partners and your safeguarding lead, and the governing body approves it. Callers follow the card and tell the supervisor.
Open this sectionClose this section: Escalation
01
Emergency
The person may be in immediate danger. Call 911 first, then tell the supervisor.[4] Be ready to give the person's address, your phone number and what you heard, and stay on the line until the call-taker says to hang up.[4]
02
Urgent concern
No immediate danger, but something is wrong today: no heat, no food, a fall yesterday, a person who sounds frightened. Tell the supervisor now. The supervisor contacts the partner named on the card.
03
Missed contact
No answer. Follow the retry schedule, then the person's own instruction from enrollment. The card sets the maximum number of tries before the supervisor acts.
04
Routine request
A question, a ride to the cooling room, a grocery need. Pass it to the coordinator, tell the person what will happen next, and close your task.
Call 911 if you hear this
During heat: confusion, dizziness or no response from someone who answered.[7] During cold: confusion, slurred speech, drowsiness or fumbling. CDC calls hypothermia a medical emergency;[8] our card treats these signs on a call as a 911 call. Our card's rule at any time: trouble breathing, a fall with injury, or a person who says they cannot get up or get out. A caller is not expected to tell these apart. If you are worried enough to wonder, call.
A missed call is not proof of harm
It is not proof of safety either. That is why the card must set a maximum: a number of attempts, over a number of hours, after which the supervisor takes the next step. We do not supply that number. It depends on the event, the person's own instruction and what your local partners advise. An escalation card without one is unfinished.
Emotional distress
If a person talks about ending their life or harming themselves, treat it as an emergency: call 911 if the danger is immediate.[4] The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline takes calls, texts and chats at 988, 24 hours a day.[10] Give the number, tell the supervisor, and do not try to counsel.
For distress about the disaster itself, SAMHSA's Disaster Distress Helpline is 1-800-985-5990 by call or text, 24 hours a day. SAMHSA says you may call for yourself or on behalf of someone else.[9]
Signs of abuse or neglect
A caller who hears something that suggests a person is being harmed, exploited or neglected tells the supervisor the same day and writes nothing down beyond the outcome code. The supervisor follows your safeguarding policy.
Reporting duties differ by state and by role. Have your safeguarding lead and counsel write this line of the card. Do not leave it to a volunteer's judgment in the moment.
Knocking on a door
A visit is a bigger promise than a call.
Some people cannot be reached by phone, and during a long outage phones die. A program may decide to offer a doorstep check to enrollees who ask for one. Decide that on purpose, with your insurer and safeguarding lead, and write separate rules for it.
Open this sectionClose this section: Knocking on a door
The rules on the right are our own starting point, not an agency standard. Tighten them to fit your policy.
Visit rules
- Two volunteers, in daylight, wearing a name badge.
- Only volunteers who have completed the screening your safeguarding policy requires.
- Only to people who chose visits at enrollment.
- The supervisor knows where each pair is and when they are due back.
- Stay at the door. Do not go inside.
- Leave a dated card if nobody answers.
- Do not travel through closed, flooded or evacuated areas.
If something is wrong at the door
- You see or hear a person in distress: call 911 from where you stand.
- Mail piled up, no answer, and the person expected you: call the supervisor, who follows the missed-contact rule.
- You are asked to come in and help with something physical: say you will pass the request on, and do.
- You feel unsafe: leave and report.
Records and supervision
Codes, not case notes.
The record of a call is a code and a time. If the supervisor needs a sentence about an escalation, it goes in a separate supervisor's log that callers never see, and it is deleted on the schedule your institution set.
Open this sectionClose this section: Records and supervision
Set the supervisor's load by what one person can track. If the supervisor cannot say, at any moment, who has not been reached today, the program has enrolled too many people or recruited too few callers.
FEMA asks an organization that manages finances, donations or other resources for an event to keep accurate and complete records.[12] We apply the same habit to this service, and for us that means totals: enrolled, assigned, contacted, pending, escalated, withdrawn. No names.
Our outcome codes
The supervisor controls
- one current list, with a version date
- who is assigned to whom
- every open escalation until it is closed
- caller check-in at the start and end of each shift
- collection of every paper list at the end of the event
- deletion, on the approved date
Where the list lives
Paper lists handed out per shift and collected afterwards are simple and work in an outage. If you keep the master list on a computer, keep it in one place with a password, not in a group chat, a shared spreadsheet link or a volunteer's personal phone. Name two or three people who can open it.
The referral card
Give callers numbers, not answers.
A caller's most useful tool is a short printed list of who to send people to. Add your local numbers to the national ones below and check every one of them before each season.
Open this sectionClose this section: The referral card
Local help and shelters
211
SAMHSA points people to 211 for information on disaster evacuations, shelters, and food and clothing distribution.[9] CDC points to it for finding an air-conditioned place.[5]
Disaster distress
1-800-985-5990
SAMHSA's Disaster Distress Helpline, call or text, 24 hours a day.[9]
Services for older adults
1-800-677-1116
The Eldercare Locator, a public service of the federal Administration for Community Living, connects older adults and families to local services.[11]
Add your own
Local numbers
Emergency management, the health department, the electric utility's outage and priority-restoration line[3], the non-emergency police line, your food bank and your coordinator.
Stop conditions
Pause the program when it cannot protect people or their information.
A check-in service that runs out of callers halfway through a heat wave leaves people waiting for a call that will not come. If you cannot keep the schedule, tell every enrolled person today, give them the referral numbers and say when you expect to resume.
The prayer-list line deserves a moment. Sharing a need so others can pray is a habit of care in many communities, and it is also how private information travels. Ask first, every time.
Next step: build the program on paper
The workbook holds the service promise, the enrollment form, the caller script, the escalation card and the deletion schedule. Then return to the faith community preparedness guide.
Questions leaders ask
Settle these before the first call.
What is a wellness check program?
A voluntary service in which assigned volunteers contact enrolled people during a named event, share verified information and pass requests to a coordinator. It is contact and referral, not medical monitoring or emergency response.
Can we just call everyone in the directory?
A general announcement to the whole directory is fine. A recurring check-in with records is a different service, and people should choose it. Enrollment is voluntary and separate from membership.
What information should we keep about each person?
Preferred name, contact method, language and times, one plain instruction for the caller, an optional backup contact, their choice for what happens if they cannot be reached, and consent dates. No diagnoses or personal history.
What does a caller do in an emergency?
Call 911 first, then tell the supervisor. Be ready to give the person's address, your number and what you heard, and stay on the line until told to hang up.
How many missed calls before we do something?
Your escalation card must set that number, using the event, the person's own instruction from enrollment and local partners' advice. This guide does not supply it. A card without a maximum is unfinished.
Should volunteers go to someone's home?
Only if your institution has approved visits with its insurer and safeguarding lead, the person chose visits at enrollment, and volunteers go in pairs and stay at the door.
What if someone sounds depressed or talks about suicide?
Call 911 if the danger is immediate. Otherwise give the 988 Lifeline number, which takes calls, texts and chats around the clock, tell the supervisor, and do not attempt counseling.
How long do we keep the records?
Only as long as the purpose requires. Collect paper lists at the end of each event, keep anonymous totals, and delete individual event records on the date your governing body approved.
Primary sources
Planning references
Each source below was opened and read on October 12, 2026. The NIST and Department of Justice material was written for government agencies, and the text above says so. The visit rules, the outcome codes and the form examples are our own and are marked as such.
- NIST Computer Security Resource Center, Glossary: Minimization. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA.gov, Emergency Planning. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- Ready.gov, People with Disabilities. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- 911.gov, Calling 911. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- CDC, About Heat and Your Health (July 20, 2026). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- CDC, The Use of Cooling Centers to Prevent Heat-Related Illness: Summary of Evidence and Strategies for Implementation (2017). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- Ready.gov, Extreme Heat. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- CDC, Preventing Hypothermia (August 25, 2026). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- SAMHSA, Disaster Distress Helpline (last updated September 26, 2025). Accessed October 12, 2026.
- SAMHSA, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- Administration for Community Living, Eldercare Locator. Accessed October 12, 2026.
- FEMA, Engaging Faith-Based and Community Organizations: Planning Considerations for Emergency Managers (April 2025). Accessed October 12, 2026.
This guide is educational. Privacy, safeguarding, mandatory-reporting and record-retention duties require local legal review. This guide makes no claim that a particular law does or does not apply to your institution.
Continue reading
What’s next
Local risks
Heat Wave Safety Plan
Heat kills more Americans each year than any other weather event.
Energy
Power Outage Action Plan: Day Two and Beyond
What to do when a power outage passes 24 hours.
Help
Winter Storm: What to Do Right Now
Do not drive unless absolutely necessary.
Seniors and mobility
Who Will Check on You? Building Your Personal Support Network
The person who checks after an outage, drives when you cannot, knows the medications, or provides a warm place during a long disruption provides more resilience than another closet full of equipment.