Your safety plan
A short plan you write while things are calmer, for the hours when they are not. When a bad time starts, begin at the first step and work down until you are safe. It takes about ten minutes.
If you are in danger now
Stop here and reach a person. Call your country’s emergency number, or go to a hospital emergency department. North America 911. Britain and Ireland 999. The European Union and Turkey 112. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar 999. Oman 9999. Australia 000. In Canada and the United States you can also call or text 988.
A 2021 review pooled six studies of safety planning, with 3,536 people. Those who made a plan went on to suicidal acts 43% less often than those given usual care: for about every 16 people who made one, one fewer person acted. The same review found no clear change in suicidal thoughts themselves, but only three small studies measured that, too few to tell either way.
So the evidence is moderate for what people do, and not established for how they feel. In those studies the plan was made with a clinician. A plan made alone on a website has not been tested in the same way, which is why it works best shown to someone: your doctor, a therapist, or a person you trust.
How do you know a bad time is starting? Thoughts, pictures in your head, moods, places, things you start doing.
Things that take your mind off it for a while, without needing anyone else.
Not to talk about how you feel. Only to be somewhere other than alone with it.
Someone you could tell that things are bad. Their name, and how to reach them.
Your doctor, a therapist if you have one, and the emergency number where you live. Write the numbers in, so they are here when you need them.
What could you put out of reach, or ask someone to keep for you, while things are this bad? Think about anything you have thought of using to hurt yourself.
One thing, or a few. A person, a hope, something not finished.
Once it is written
- Keep it where you will find it on a bad day: printed in a wallet, a photo on your phone.
- Show it to someone. A plan another person knows about is one they can help you use.
- Look at it again when something changes: a new number, a new warning sign, a new reason.
Your plan is kept in this browser on this device, and nobody else can read it. Clearing your site data deletes it, and Safari removes it by itself after about seven days without a visit, so print or download a copy. Inshirah is not a crisis service, and nobody here sees what you write.
Sources: Nuij C, et al. Safety planning-type interventions for suicide prevention: meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry 2021;219:419-426. doi:10.1192/bjp.2021.50. Stanley B, Brown GK. Safety Planning Intervention: a brief intervention to mitigate suicide risk. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice 2012;19:256-264. doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2011.01.001.