The ALGEE action plan is a five-step framework taught in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training that helps everyday people respond to someone experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis. Each letter stands for one step: Assess for risk of suicide or harm, Listen nonjudgmentally, Give reassurance and information, Encourage appropriate professional help, and Encourage self-help and other support strategies. It’s designed for non-professionals, meaning you don’t need a clinical background to use it.
The framework was developed by Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm at the Australian National University and has since been adopted in dozens of countries. Think of it as the mental health equivalent of CPR: a structured response anyone can learn to bridge the gap between someone in distress and professional care.
How the Five Steps Work
ALGEE is meant to be followed roughly in order, though real conversations don’t always move in a straight line. The steps give you a reliable structure so you’re not frozen or guessing when someone around you is struggling.
A: Assess for Risk of Suicide or Harm
The first step is figuring out whether the person is in immediate danger. This means looking for warning signs that someone may be thinking about suicide or self-harm, or that they could be a risk to others. You’re not diagnosing anything. You’re simply paying attention to what they’re saying and doing, then deciding how urgent the situation is. If someone expresses thoughts of ending their life or harming themselves, the priority shifts to keeping them safe and connecting them with emergency resources right away.
In non-crisis situations, where someone is clearly struggling but not in immediate danger, this step is quicker. You’re still checking in and gauging severity, but you’ll spend more time on the steps that follow.
L: Listen Nonjudgmentally
This step is about creating space for the person to talk without feeling criticized or dismissed. That means resisting the urge to offer quick fixes, minimize their feelings, or share your own experiences as a comparison. Good nonjudgmental listening involves making eye contact, using open body language, and reflecting back what the person is saying so they know you’re genuinely hearing them. Phrases like “that sounds really difficult” do more than “you’ll be fine” or “just try to think positive.”
For many people in distress, simply being heard is one of the most powerful things you can offer. This step often takes the most time and has the biggest impact on whether the person trusts you enough to accept help.
G: Give Reassurance and Information
After someone has shared what they’re going through, you provide hope and useful facts. This doesn’t mean making promises you can’t keep or pretending everything is fine. It means letting them know that mental health challenges are common, that effective help exists, and that reaching out takes real courage. You can share basic information about what they might be experiencing without trying to label or diagnose it.
What to avoid here matters as much as what to say. Telling someone to “snap out of it,” comparing their situation to someone who has it worse, or brushing off their feelings as an overreaction all undermine trust. The goal is to normalize their experience while gently pointing toward solutions.
E: Encourage Appropriate Professional Help
This step involves suggesting that the person connect with a professional who can provide real, ongoing support. That could mean a therapist, a counselor, a primary care doctor, or a crisis line depending on the situation. Useful resources to mention include the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) and the Crisis Text Line (text 741741).
The key word here is “encourage,” not “force.” You can explain what professional help looks like, offer to help them find a provider, or even sit with them while they make a call. But the decision is ultimately theirs. People are more likely to follow through when they feel supported rather than pressured.
E: Encourage Self-Help and Other Support Strategies
The final step focuses on ongoing coping strategies and community support. This includes practical suggestions: reaching out to trusted friends or family, spending time outdoors, recognizing personal triggers, and acknowledging difficult feelings rather than suppressing them. You’re helping the person build a broader support system beyond just this one conversation.
This step recognizes that recovery and mental wellness aren’t just about professional treatment. Daily habits, social connections, and self-awareness all play a role. You’re planting seeds for longer-term resilience, not just addressing the immediate moment.
What ALGEE Is Not
ALGEE trains you to provide first-line support, not therapy. You are not expected to diagnose a condition, prescribe a course of action, or serve as someone’s ongoing mental health resource. The role is closer to a bystander performing CPR: you stabilize the situation and help connect the person to professionals who can take over from there.
This distinction is important because overstepping those boundaries can do harm, even with the best intentions. Attempting to play therapist without training risks giving bad advice or creating a dependent relationship that neither of you can sustain. The framework works precisely because it keeps the responder’s role clear and manageable.
Does the Training Actually Work?
A large meta-analysis published in PLOS ONE examined the effects of Mental Health First Aid training across multiple studies. Trainees showed moderate improvements in their ability to recognize mental health conditions and in their confidence helping someone in distress. They also became more aligned with evidence-based views on treatment, meaning they were less likely to suggest unhelpful responses and more likely to recommend professional care. Stigma toward people with mental health challenges decreased as well, though that effect was smaller.
The original evaluation by Kitchener and Jorm found that participants were more willing to provide help to others after completing the course and felt significantly more confident doing so. They also showed less social distance from people with mental disorders, meaning they were less likely to avoid or feel uncomfortable around someone experiencing symptoms.
Using ALGEE in Crisis vs. Non-Crisis Situations
The framework applies to both emergencies and everyday struggles, but the emphasis shifts depending on severity. In a crisis, such as someone expressing suicidal thoughts or experiencing a psychotic episode, the “Assess” step dominates. Your primary job is ensuring safety, which may mean staying with the person and contacting emergency services before moving through the remaining steps.
In non-crisis situations, like noticing a coworker withdrawing socially or a friend describing weeks of overwhelming anxiety, you spend more time listening, providing information, and gently encouraging them toward professional support. The steps still follow the same order, but the pace is slower and the tone is more conversational. Most real-world uses of ALGEE fall into this non-crisis category, where the goal is catching problems before they escalate rather than responding to an emergency already in progress.