Starting November 1st, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will stop performing concern-for-welfare checks unless there's a risk to life, risk of harm, or an actual crime involved - a policy shift that affects roughly 30,000 mental health calls a year, or about 80 per day. The public will still dial 999, but trained handlers may now route them to other emergency services or health and social care staff instead of dispatching an officer.

The policy, called Right Care Right Person, is being rolled out in phases across Northern Ireland. It's already been running among some forces in England and Wales since 2023, where police no longer attend calls lacking a crime, harm risk, or threat to life. Instead, health, social care, or community services may handle the request. Calls to 999 will be triaged - if there's any risk of harm or life, or a crime is involved, police still show up. Welfare checks, however, may now land on someone else's desk. The public's job remains unchanged: phone 999 in an emergency.

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson previously told a Stormont committee that mental health contacts had reached "unprecedented levels." Thousands of calls about a person potentially in danger came in, yet just 3% were related to crime - a statistic that makes you wonder who exactly was being protected by sending a police officer to every one of them.

One vocal supporter is Charles Little, son-in-law of Michael and Marjorie Cawdery, who were killed in a "frenzied attack" in their home in 2017. Thomas Scott McEntee, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. The murders prompted a review into how the PSNI and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust had "missed opportunities" to detain McEntee for mental health care in the days before the attack. Little told BBC News NI that if Right Care Right Person had been in place then, it might have "saved the day."

"If you're in a mental health crisis you might find a policeman turning up extremely frightening and it might worsen the situation," he said. "So you don't always want the police to go first, even though at the moment the police are effectively the mental health front line." He added that people "need to be looked after properly, they need to get the right care and they need to get it from the right person."

Not everyone is convinced. Dr Ross Irvine from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland said "our mental health services are currently at crisis point," noting that 30% of posts across the province sit vacant. "A policy which removes the safety net that the PSNI are currently providing, and transfers that onto services that are already struggling to stand still, does give us cause for concern."

George Hannah of the British Association of Social Workers said members feel it's "too quick" and that "there aren't sufficient resources in the system to do it safely at the moment." He noted most social workers don't want police present constantly due to escalation risk, but "not knowing that you have access to additional support when it's needed will increase concerns." His summary: "This is about making sure that the right person gets the right care, but if the care isn't available in the system, then we're just moving people around."

Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland Prof Siobhan O'Neill called the policy an important step forward. "The police were attending calls where there really wasn't a policing issue," she said, adding that systems are working together well. But funding remains a sticking point - she has previously called for a Regional Crisis Intervention Service and said she's "disappointed that there hasn't been the investment in the health services and mental health services to ensure that there's a backfill, alternative service."

The PSNI told BBC News NI it responds to approximately 30,000 mental health calls annually, with a "significant proportion" coming from health workers. The force says the approach ensures individuals receive care from the most appropriate professional, reduces avoidable delays, improves consistency in decision-making, and supports safe and lawful practice across Northern Ireland. In other words: nothing to see here, please direct your welfare concerns to the appropriate queue.