Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Wake County program reactivates daily wellness check calls to senior citizens

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe talks about new Well Check Program. Three senior citizens standby waiting to be interviewed.
Sharryse Piggott
/
WUNC
Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe talks about new Well Check Program. Three senior citizens standby waiting to be interviewed.

Beginning Tuesday, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office is bringing back a program that checks on the welfare of senior citizens 65 and older.

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe said the Citizen’s Well-Check Program consists of a phone call every morning at 9 a.m.

“[An] automated system will call each senior," Rowe said. “And you'll hear my voice asking you if you’re okay, and if you are, to press one, and hang up. And if you need assistance, call 911.”

If there's no response, another call will be made to the senior citizen five minutes later. If there's still no answer, the senior's emergency contact will be called. A sheriff's deputy will then be dispatched to their residence, if that doesn't work.

Rowe said the wellness check will restart with 100 seniors for now, and will later grow. The original program was suspended during his predecessor Gerald Baker's term.

Sharryse Piggott is WUNC’s PM Reporter.
More Stories