Safety Plans
Understand the intricacies of Safety Plans, their significance, and how to utilize them for crisis management effectively. Download our free Safety Plan template.
Fact Checked by Ericka Pingol.
What is a Safety Plan?
A Safety Plan is a robust, preventive tool meant to help people experiencing suicidal thoughts or other mental health emergencies. This complete approach, particularly the Stanley Brown Safety approach, includes individualized strategies to assist individuals in recognizing and managing crises.
The Safety Plan is not a passive document but an active strategy to increase resilience and self-efficacy. It functions as a road map, directing people from the onset of a crisis, as indicated by early warning indicators, via various internal and external coping mechanisms, to a position of safety and stability.
This proactive strategy is an essential component of mental health management and suicide prevention, and it is commonly utilized as a therapist's aid in these domains. A encourages individuals to take control of their mental health and offers hope for a better tomorrow by assisting them in navigating their crises.
Printable Safety Plan
Download this Safety Plan to help ensure the safety of your clients.
How does it work?
The Safety Plan operates on a principle of self-guided crisis management, utilizing a step-by-step approach tailored to the individual's unique circumstances and needs.
Step 1: Identifying warning signs
This is the first and most crucial step in preventing a crisis. The individual recognizes personal triggers or signs indicating a catastrophe is coming. Specific ideas, pictures, events, or behaviors that indicate decreased mental health could be included.
Step 2: Employing internal coping strategies
When warning indicators are spotted, the individual applies self-help measures that have proven effective in earlier encounters. Mindfulness techniques, breathing exercises, and other activities that help distract from upsetting thoughts or lower emotional intensity may be included in these strategies.
Step 3: Socializing with others who may offer a distraction from crises
Interacting with people can give a welcome distraction and help to interrupt the loop of troubling thoughts. This stage looks for persons or social situations that can provide comfort and distraction.
Step 4: Contacting family members or friends who may help to resolve a crisis
Sometimes diversion is insufficient, and the individual must seek assistance. The first step is to identify a support network of trustworthy folks who can provide immediate assistance by giving emotional support or navigating to professional help.
Step 5: Contacting mental health professionals or agencies
If the distress persists despite personal coping skills and assistance from family or friends, this step is a starting point for contacting professional mental health services. Depending on the severity of the crisis, this could be a mental health hotline, a personal therapist, or even a hospital.
Step 6: Reducing the potential for the use of lethal means
This third step is a precautionary measure to protect people during a catastrophe. It entails planning to restrict access to fatal means, which can significantly improve one's chances of surviving a catastrophe.
Each phase builds on the one before it, resulting in a comprehensive, tiered approach to crisis management. As the individual works through their Safety Plan, they gain increasing autonomy in navigating their mental health crises, allowing them to reclaim control and seek the care they require.
Safety Plans Example (sample)
The practical use of a Safety Plan is frequently best understood through examples. So, we have included a sample Safety Plan in which potential scenarios and solutions are written to provide an illustrated guide on completing the plan. This sample describes the individual's distinctive warning indicators, coping mechanisms, social interactions, critical contacts, and probable lethal means reduction tactics.
It is a practical reference for tailoring the strategy to the individual's specific circumstances and needs. Individuality is crucial here; everyone's Safety Plan will appear different since it must be personalized to reflect unique experiences, coping processes, and supportive networks.
Download this Safety Plan Example:
When would you use this Template?
The Safety Plan template is a valuable resource that may be used in a variety of situations. It is intended to be a preventive measure as well as an effective means of navigating crises.
Ongoing mental health treatment
The Safety Plan is an important tool in one's mental health toolbox. It promotes self-awareness, self-management, and personal responsibility for mental health.
Suicidal thoughts or behaviors
When a person has suicidal ideation or a history of self-harm, the Safety Plan is an essential tool. It lays forth a clear path for the individual to follow to reduce the risk of harm by recognizing early warning indicators and activating coping techniques.
High-stress situations
Individuals may struggle to cope with life upheavals such as divorce, job loss, or sorrow. The Safety Plan can act as a grounding aid in these situations, providing a structured approach to dealing with the increased stress and sometimes overwhelming emotions.
Post-Hospital Discharge
A Safety Plan can help in the transition phase after a mental health-related hospitalization by giving an organized method to address potential emergencies outside of the hospital environment.
First responders and Healthcare Professionals
These persons can use the Safety Plan to assist clients or patients who are suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis.
Educational Institutions
Safety Plans can be used by school counselors, teachers, or university wellness centers to help students who are coping with mental health concerns or who are facing excessive stress during exams or due to personal circumstances.
Each situation necessitates a distinct strategy, underlining the importance of personalized, tailored Safety Plans that address individual requirements and situations.
Benefits
A Safety Plan is a transforming tool that can significantly improve a person's ability to manage mental health crises. This resilience roadmap offers users with a safety net that they can use in times of extreme emotional hardship.
This tool becomes useful in sustaining mental health and well-being by connecting the Safety Plan with an individual's particular collection of warning signs, coping methods, and support network.
1. Enhance self-awareness
The act of recognizing personal warning signs and coping strategies helps to cultivate self-awareness. This understanding can lead to improved self-management during periods of crisis.
2. Promote autonomy
A Safety Plan encourages individuals to take a proactive role in their mental health. Having a pre-prepared plan can make individuals feel empowered and confident in managing their emotions during a crisis.
3. Create a supportive network
Individuals are prompted to establish and nurture a supportive network of people who can provide comfort and assistance when needed by having a list of key contacts to reach out to during a crisis.
4. Reduce risk
A Safety Plan can help individuals to reduce the potential harm to themselves during a crisis by including strategies to limit access to potentially lethal means.
5. Encourage professional help-seeking
The Safety Plan prompts individuals to seek help from mental health professionals if their coping strategies and support network are not enough to alleviate the crisis.
6. Foster hope and resilience
Creating a Safety Plan affirms that the individual believes they can get through the crisis. This can foster hope and resilience, reminding them that crises are temporary and that help is available.
Why use Carepatron as your Safety Plan app?
Carepatron is more than simply an app; it is a partner on your road to better mental health. Its feature-rich and user-friendly platform makes it the best choice for developing, amending, and updating your Safety Plan.
Your Safety Plan becomes a living document with Carepatron, which can be updated and altered as your circumstances and needs change. This mobility is critical for keeping the plan relevant and valuable.
The platform's rigorous privacy controls ensure that users' sensitive information is secure. Carepatron makes sharing your Safety Plan with your support network or mental health specialists easy, enabling collaborative care.
Carepatron is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, giving you rapid access to your plan in times of distress. With the added benefit of real-time updates, you can be confident that your Safety Plan is always up to current.
References
Brown, G.K., Ten Have, T., Henriques, G.R., Xie, S.X., Hollander, J.E., Beck, A.T. (2005). Cognitive Therapy for the Prevention of Suicide Attempts: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA, 294(5), 563–570. doi:10.1001/jama.294.5.563
Stanley, B., Brown, G.K. (2012). Safety Planning Intervention: A Brief Intervention to Mitigate Suicide Risk. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19(2), 256-264. doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2011.01.001
Commonly asked questions
The Safety Plan is primarily used by individuals at risk of a mental health crisis or experiencing suicidal thoughts. Mental health professionals also use it as a tool to aid their clients.
The Safety Plan is used when individuals recognize early warning signs of a potential crisis, enabling them to apply coping strategies and seek help.
The Safety Plan guides individuals through a sequence of steps to manage a crisis, from recognizing warning signs, employing coping strategies, contacting their support network, and contacting mental health professionals if necessary. It also includes measures to reduce the potential for lethal means.
