Dustin K MacDonald

Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Economic and Community Development
  • Nonprofit Management
    • Counselling and Service Delivery
    • Suicide Prevention / Crisis Intervention
  • Politics and Governance
  • Math and Statistics
  • Salesforce
Menu

Designing Safety Plans with Suicidal Individuals

Posted on May 10, 2015May 28, 2016 by Dustin

A safety plan is a written list of those activities that allow us to do three things:

  1. Recognize when a crisis is occurring
  2. Recognize who our supports are
  3. Make immediate next-steps for planning

Safety plans are not checklists, and they should not be used in place of having a real conversation. They help provide a sense of control and a reminder to suicidal individuals that they have resources to rely on.

Table of Contents

Warning Signs

Warning signs are anything that indicates a suicidal crisis might be coming. This are unique but some examples could be a change in physical or mental health status, a fight with someone, academic or occupational difficulties, financial problems, and anything else that will trigger your suicidal thoughts.

You can ask questions like:

  • What do you think led you to feeling suicidal?
  • How is today (or when you felt suicidal) different from yesterday?
  • What things would have to change to take these suicidal feelings away?

Support Network

Your support network is all of the resources you draw on to help yourself get through a crisis. They include internal supports, external supports, and peripheral supports. You can read more about this on my support network article.

Internal Supports

  • Future Hopes and Dreams
  • Positive Value System
  • Religion and Spirituality
  • Past Experiences
  • Listening to music
  • Taking a hot bath

External Supports

External supports are those friends and family who we’re close to, and can rely on when our internal supports just aren’t good enough.

  • Friends
  • Family
  • Pets
  • Boss / Colleagues
  • Mentor

Peripheral Supports

Peripheral supports are the professionals we move to when our external supports are not qualified.

  • Counsellor / Therapist
  • Crisis Lines
  • Mobile Crisis Teams
  • Information and Referral Services
  • Social Service Agencies

Strategies for Reducing Risk in a Crisis

There are a number of steps a person can take depending on their level of suicide risk. The traditional model is a three-pronged approach.

Low Risk

Low risk focuses on active listening. By exploring with the person what led them to have these suicidal thoughts you can help them feel some catharsis and emotional relief. There is no need to be directive here, or even to offer resources unless the person wants them.

Medium Risk

In medium risk situations it is important to focus on a collaborative safety model. This may include counseling on access to lethal means, referrals and follow up. This ensures that someone who might attempt suicide in the medium term is able to access enough support.

One important element about referrals: the referrals that have the best uptake are existing or past referrals, while the lowest rate of taking action is to new referrals. (Gould, et. al., 2012)

High Risk

In high risk suicide situations we will focus on emergency referrals and unilateral intervention. Mobile crisis teams, hospitals and police will be the appropriate referrals at this stage.

In the case of a suicide attempt in progress, getting an ambulance will be of utmost priority.

Sample Safety Plan

Stanley & Brown (2008) wrote a safety plan and accompanying manual that can be used with adults, particularly veterans. It would require some changes to the wording for use with youth but the principles are the same.

Bibliography

Gould, M.S., Munfakh, J.L.H.,  Kleinman, M., Lake, A.M. (2012) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Enhancing Mental Health Care for Suicidal Individuals and Other People in Crisis. Journal of Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. doi: 10.1111/j.1943-278X.2011.00068.x

Stanley, B., Brown, G.K. (2008) Safety Plan Treatment Manual to Reduce Suicide Risk: Veteran Version. Department of Veterans Affairs.



Cite this article as: MacDonald, D.K., (2015), "Designing Safety Plans with Suicidal Individuals," retrieved on March 30, 2023 from http://dustinkmacdonald.com/suicide-safety-planning/.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Privacy Policy

See here for our privacy policy. This site uses affiliate links and Adsense ads to provide targeted advertising.

Tags

analytical technique assessment city council communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention data science eastern university economic development education empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance humint intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal local government management peer support personal development politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning salesforce sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training violence risk assessment youth

Recommended Posts

  • Conducting Psychosocial Assessments
  • DCIB Model of Suicide Risk Assessment
  • ABC Model of Crisis Intervention
  • My Friend is Suicidal - What do I do?

Recent Posts

  • University of the Cumberlands PhD in Information Technology
  • Joining the US Coast Guard Auxiliary
  • What is a Salesforce Business Analyst?
  • Why I Joined Mensa
  • NCCM Documentation

Archives

  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (2)
  • January 2023 (4)
  • December 2022 (2)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (2)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (3)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (4)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (4)
  • November 2018 (3)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • September 2018 (19)
  • October 2017 (2)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (39)
  • May 2017 (3)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (5)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (5)
  • September 2016 (4)
  • August 2016 (5)
  • July 2016 (5)
  • June 2016 (5)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (2)
  • November 2015 (2)
  • October 2015 (2)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (2)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (3)
  • March 2015 (8)
  • February 2015 (12)
  • January 2015 (28)

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • Dustin on Eastern University Master of Science in Data Science Half-way Review
  • Joly on Eastern University Master of Science in Data Science Half-way Review
  • Dustin on Crisis Triage Rating Scale (CTRS)
  • thomas mahek on Crisis Triage Rating Scale (CTRS)
  • Dustin on Eastern University MS in Data Science 2022 Review

Tags

analytical technique assessment city council communication community development counselling crisis chat crisis intervention data science eastern university economic development education empathy evaluation forecasting fundraising governance humint intelligence intelligence analysis keokuk county language learning legal local government management peer support personal development politics professional development protective factors psychosocial risk factors safety planning salesforce sigourney social media statistics suicide suicide assessment suicide risk assessment technology terrorism training violence risk assessment youth
© 2023 Dustin K MacDonald | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme