A suicide safety plan is a written, step-by-step guide you create in advance to help you stay safe when suicidal thoughts intensify. It walks you through a specific sequence of actions, starting with things you can do on your own and gradually moving toward reaching out to others and professional help. The idea is simple: when you’re in crisis, your ability to think clearly and problem-solve drops sharply. A plan made ahead of time does that thinking for you.
The most widely used version is the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention, a six-step framework developed by clinical psychologists Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown. A 2018 study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that this approach was associated with 45% fewer suicidal behaviors over six months compared to usual care.
How a Safety Plan Differs From a No-Suicide Contract
You may have heard of “no-suicide contracts” or “no-harm contracts,” where a person promises a therapist they won’t attempt suicide. These are now considered contraindicated by suicide prevention researchers. They place the burden on the person in crisis to simply will themselves through it, without providing any concrete tools. A safety plan does the opposite: it gives you a specific, ordered list of actions to take when distress escalates, so you’re never relying on willpower alone.
The Six Steps of a Safety Plan
The steps are arranged in a deliberate order, from lowest intensity to highest. You work through them one at a time. If the first step doesn’t bring relief, you move to the next.
Step 1: Recognize Your Warning Signs
This is where you identify the personal thoughts, feelings, images, or situations that signal a crisis is building. These look different for everyone. For some people, it’s a specific thought like “everyone would be better off without me.” For others, it’s a mood shift: sudden emptiness, trapped feelings, or a spike in agitation. Behavioral changes count too, like withdrawing from people, sleeping much more or less than usual, or increasing alcohol or drug use. The point is to name these signals clearly enough that you can catch them early, before the crisis peaks.
Step 2: Use Internal Coping Strategies
These are things you can do entirely on your own to interrupt the spiral, without contacting anyone. The goal isn’t to solve the underlying problem. It’s to shift your attention and lower your emotional intensity enough to get through the moment. Examples include going for a walk or run, doing a breathing exercise, listening to music, working on a puzzle, journaling, looking at photos that ground you in positive memories, praying or reading something meaningful to you, or soothing yourself with something sensory like a warm drink or time with a pet.
When you create your plan, you write down the specific activities that actually work for you. Generic suggestions are less useful than ones you’ve tested. If guided imagery has helped you before, that goes on the list. If exercise reliably shifts your mood, that goes on the list.
Step 3: Reach Out to People or Places That Provide Distraction
If internal strategies aren’t enough, the next step is social contact. This doesn’t mean telling someone you’re in crisis. It means calling a friend to talk about anything, going to a coffee shop, visiting a family member, or heading somewhere with other people around. The goal is to break isolation and redirect your thoughts through connection, even casual connection. You list specific people you can contact and specific places you can go.
Step 4: Ask Someone You Trust for Help
This is where you move from distraction to disclosure. You identify specific people, whether friends, family members, or others, whom you could tell that you’re struggling. You write down their names and phone numbers. Some people also note what they’d say to start the conversation, since finding the right words in a crisis can feel impossible. Having that language ready in advance removes a barrier.
Step 5: Contact a Professional or Crisis Service
Your plan includes contact information for your therapist, psychiatrist, or other mental health provider, along with crisis resources. The primary national resource is the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can call, text, or chat by dialing or texting 988. Chat is available at 988lifeline.org. Services are available in English, Spanish, and through interpreters in more than 240 languages. Veterans and service members can connect to the Veterans Crisis Line by texting 838255. You can also list a local crisis center or emergency department you would go to.
Step 6: Make Your Environment Safer
This step focuses on reducing access to anything you could use to harm yourself, particularly during a vulnerable period. For firearms, that means storing them unloaded in a locked cabinet with ammunition stored separately, using a gun lock, giving the key to a trusted person, or temporarily storing the firearm with someone outside the home entirely. For medications, it might mean asking a family member to hold and dispense them in safe quantities. For other means, it could involve removing or securing specific items. The principle is straightforward: putting time and distance between a person in crisis and lethal means saves lives, because most suicidal crises are temporary. If you get through the acute moment, the risk drops substantially.
How and When a Plan Gets Created
Safety plans are typically created collaboratively with a therapist, counselor, or other mental health professional, though they can also be made in an emergency department or even on your own. The process involves a conversation where you and your clinician work through each step together, drawing on your specific experiences, relationships, and coping skills. A clinician might also help you practice parts of the plan in session, like rehearsing a breathing technique or role-playing how you’d start a conversation with a trusted person.
The plan is usually created when someone is experiencing suicidal thoughts but is not in immediate danger. It can also be updated over time as your circumstances, relationships, and coping strategies change. A plan that felt right six months ago may need revision if you’ve moved, changed therapists, or discovered new strategies that work better.
Timing matters. Some clinicians initiate safety planning whenever a patient reports thoughts of suicide, even passive ones like “I wish I weren’t here.” Others wait until there’s a more active plan or elevated risk. There’s no single protocol, but the general consensus is that earlier is better: having a plan already in place before a severe crisis hits makes it far more useful.
Digital Safety Plan Options
If you want your plan accessible on your phone at all times, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers a free Safety Plan app for both iOS and Android. Despite being created by the VA, it’s publicly available to anyone, not just veterans. The app walks you through all six steps and stores your plan on your device so you can pull it up quickly in a crisis. Having a digital copy means you’re less likely to be caught without it, though keeping a paper copy somewhere accessible at home is also a good idea.
Why Safety Plans Work
The structure of a safety plan reflects something important about how suicidal crises unfold. They tend to be intense but time-limited. The period of highest danger often lasts minutes to hours, not days. A safety plan is designed to help you survive that window by giving you concrete, pre-decided actions instead of asking you to think creatively when your mind is at its least flexible. Each step buys time. And time, in a suicidal crisis, is often the difference between life and death.
The JAMA Psychiatry study that tracked over 1,600 people treated in emergency departments found that only 3% of those who received a safety plan with follow-up engaged in suicidal behavior over the next six months, compared to about 5.3% of those who received standard care. That 45% reduction is significant given how difficult suicidal behavior is to prevent with any single intervention. Safety planning works in part because it’s personalized, portable, and gives the person in crisis a sense of agency during a moment when everything feels out of control.