How would I contact the non-emergency police from overseas?

[MadameFantabulosa]

I live abroad, and my Mum is in U.K. Pre-pandemic I used to fly back (3 hour flight) to see her every six weeks. I’ve managed to see her three times in the past year and call her regularly. My biggest worry is what to do if she doesn’t answer the phone one day. This has been triggered by a friend of hers being found dead in her garden. My Mum hadn’t been able to reach her for three weeks, and was agonising over whether to call the non-emergency police as she had done this once before and her friend was really horrible to her, as she decided she just wasn’t answering the phone to anyone. As well as this, my friend who lived in the next village and used to pop over once a week and keep an eye on her died suddenly a few weeks ago. She lives quite rurally. One set of neighbours are also in their 80s and are never there, and the house next door is empty as it’s being renovated. There’s not really anyone left who can keep an eye on her.

I would just Google the non emergency contact number for her local force and ask them to do a welfare check if you ever cannot get hold of her.

Brilliant, thank you - just found a non-emergency number if calling from abroad!

I'm assuming, as I think you are OP, that you can't dial 101 from abroad. I had a look at my local force's website and came up with this - there is an online chat option.

I can see some police forces do publish a number to call if dialling from overseas and I did then also come across this which lists some geographical numbers for each police force in England at least.

Does she have a careline? It might be an idea, given she’s now so isolated. That would give you another number to call if you couldn’t get a response from your mum, and they could call police/ambulance locally too.

I contacted age concern when I was living abroad and they helped ENORMOUSLY!

Could it be worth looking up what the Royal Voluntary Service offer in the area where your mum lives, I've no experience of them but have heard that they can drop round to check in on people. Also a careline is a good idea but only if your mum is prepared to use it! (neither my grandma or my husband's grandma actually wear their pendants! )

Also consider tech solutions, movement alarms so you can be alerted if she, eg, hasn’t been into her kitchen by 3pm

My FM has an emergency call button thing (probably the careline service a pp mentioned?)

It's from the local authority, she does have to pay for it, but whem Mum told me how it works it sounded useful

She does have one of those emergency pendants. Hadn’t realised they come with a phone number - will look out the paperwork. I have stressed to her the importance of having it on, and she did fall in the garden last year, and they sent an ambulance immediately. Unfortunately her two contacts for that have both died, so we need to look at adding someone else. Her new neighbours who are renovating the house next door might be helpful - they have popped round and offered to get her any shopping that she needs.

Thank you all for your help. I’ll look into Age Concern and the RVS.

I can only share my experience which may not be the same countrywide. My dad was in hospital and my mum wasn’t picking up the phone. I could not convince him that she had just left the phone off the hook so he rang the police and they said they are unable to attend in such circumstances; they send an ambulance. Which they did and all was as I thought - phone not docked correctly.

In fact, following on from the above post, I’ve had a Google on ‘welfare checks’. My local force has no published policy but other forces do. This is an example: www.westyorkshire.police.uk/sites/default/files/2020-03/welfare_checks_deployment_procedure.pdf
My reading of this is that the response my dad was given and what happened is in line with this. Bottom line is it seems unlikely the police would attend. You may be lucky but I wouldn’t count on it. It could be worth you contacting the local PCSO (most have a Facebook presence) to ask for advice. It sounds to me like your mum could do with a paid career popping in? That could be a better solution.

Restzol that's interesting, I think it must vary from place to place as the police went straight round when I couldn't raise DF last year (he lived in the Scottish Highlands). Very sadly he had died, and they were absolutely amazing in helping me sort out procrator fiscal stuff, keeping keys, all sorts.

@mrsmalcolmreynolds I think it might vary not just force to force but person to person! The rationale given to my dad was that if there is a problem of a medical nature the police are not qualified to deal with that hence sending an ambulance. This is pretty much what the Yorkshire policy linked says too. You might be ‘lucky’ and get an officer or PCSO to attend or you might not. Bottom line seems to be that a ‘welfare check’ doesn’t seem to be an official process, or at least not in the circumstances the OP describes. In my location in England the response is to send an ambulance which may well be appropriate but I guess you wouldn’t want too many false alarms diverting that resource…

@Restzol very true, I think up in the Highlands they're quite pragmatic and whoever's closest goes!