Suicide Prevention: Safety Planning Resources
This work supports the Champs Suicide Prevention Strategy. The development work is coordinated by the Beyond program and Merseyside Youth Association’s RAISE Team.
There is a dedicated Safety Planning workstream which meets regularly. Membership is open to any organisation that is delivering on its four main aims:
- Promotion of safety plans
- Training.
- Evaluation and monitoring.
- Social media campaigns.
To join this workstream, click here.
On this page, you’ll find a range of useful films, practical tools and resources that can help a young person understand their thoughts of suicide and keep them safe.
Safety plans can also offer the opportunity for you and the young person you’re supporting to plan how to communicate and check in with each other in the future.
This film features a series of questions posed to five young people with different experiences. It gives an insight into how young people process feelings of suicide and the tools and techniques they use to keep themselves safe.
Click here to watch individual question film clips.
The questions
- What is safety to you?
- What can you do to keep yourself safe?
- What are the things that make you feel unsafe?
- Can you talk us through what happens to you?
- How do you calm down when this happens?
- Are there times when you feel better? If so, when?
- Are there times when you don’t feel safe?
- How do you, or can you communicate with people?
- Who can support you?
- What or who inspires you?
- What works for you, what is helping?
- What or who is keeping you alive?
- What do people who care about you say about you?
- Why do you want to stay alive?
- What can you do to make your environment safer?
- What do you hope to get out of the sessions?
- What strengths do you have?
- What goals do you want to achieve?
- What are the things you like to do?
You can read the full film script and view the questions here.
The RAISE Team featured in 2 recent podcasts focused on Suicide Prevention. This first podcast was part of the ‘Mindful Merseyside’ series hosted by LJMU and featuring Lucy Oliver from MYA’s RAISE Team, LJMU’s Dr Emma Ashworth and the ‘3 Dads Walking’ that raise awareness across the country and funds for Papyrus, the Suicide Prevention charity.
The second podcast was hosted by Papyrus, as part of Children’s Mental Health Week 2024, where the theme was ‘Your Voice Matters’. This was focusing on the importance of Safety Plans, a crucial intervention tool highlighting voice and choice. Papyrus was joined by Lucy Oliver from MYA’s RAISE Team and Siobhan Keating, from YPAS, discussing the importance of valuing children and young people’s voice.
Safety Planning
A safety plan is a personal tool, so it’s important to consider individual circumstances when creating one. Below are links to a range of different plans; what works for one young person may not work for another, so take a look and find one that suits your preferences.
Serious – for children and young people
Developed with young people, this safety plan is helpful to work through with a young person in times of distress. It includes space to input answers and a space to be creative and is designed to fold into a z-card format that can fit into lanyards, pockets, purses, etc.
It has opportunities for reflection, things that lead to bad feelings, things that make me feel happy if I’m struggling, I will contact etc.
It asks questions such as:
- How will I know when I’m starting to feel bad?
- Why do I want to be alive?
- What will keep me safe?
- Where can I go to be with people?
- What do I need to calm down?
Staying Safe
A web-based interactive approach with helpful tips and examples to help you create a personalised plan using drag-and-drop facilities.
The online version can be completed, then saved as a PDF and downloaded.
This is split into options for:
- Getting through right now
- Making my situation safer
- Things that lift or calm my mood
- Things to distract me
- People to support me.
My mental health safety plan
- What are my warning signs that I’m heading for a suicidal/mental health crisis?
- What works to help me cope with how I feel?
- Which people and places help to distract me from the way I feel?
- Who can help me when I feel I’m in a crisis?
- Which professionals and agencies can help me when I feel I’m in crisis?
- How can I make my environment safer?
- What will help me get through right now?
Alongside providing a checklist of useful contacts, this plan has space for details of GP and others that could help as well as a reflection box to give strategies for if I am concerned about how I feel, I will keep myself safe by…
Healthy Cornwall
Here are a range of resources supporting the use of Safety Planning, including helpful videos on how to make a plan and a BSL version.
There is a detailed safety plan with boxes to input details, a tick list of support options, and a video link. They also have an easy-to-read, accessible PDF version.
Download your mental health safety plans below
Younger children
Papyrus has created a Stay Safe Plan aimed at younger children and young people or those who need an easy-to-read version. This includes:
- What makes me feel bad?
- What does this look like?
- How can I keep myself safe right now?
- What helps me feel good?
- If I can’t stay safe, who will I tell?
- If I need help, who can I ring?
Papyrus
Two different safety plan options:
The paper plan has boxes for detail with bullet points and space to answer creatively. These are all guided by questions such as:
- Why do I want to stay safe?
- What might make it harder to stay safe, and what can I do about this?
- What strengths do I have that I can use to keep myself safe?
- Who can I reach out to for help?
It has an opportunity to reflect on – making my environment safer and space for a longer-term support plan.
An active HOPELINK Safety Plan can be accessed after calling HOPELINE 24/7. Callers can work with trained advisers to create their safety plan. This is confidential and always accessible with a login of two random words.
Flashcards and Safety Plan
The Merseycare Safety Plan contains Flashcards and a Safety Plan.
Flashcards are top 10 Safety Tips asking questions such as:
- My calm-down tips
- What I need to do to make my environment safe
- Triggers and Solutions
The plan takes a more detailed approach including:
- What I know about myself and how I am feeling (Rating Scale)
- Suicidal thoughts – plans to keep me safe and actions
- Keeping my environment safe planning ahead and building hope
- Reasons for living.
Students Against Depression
A module on Safety Planning as part of their self-help resources.
This is split into two sections – Keeping Myself Safe and Reducing Self Harm.
This goes into a general safety plan if you are feeling actively suicidal, or a personal safety plan to create not in crisis, that has longer-term strategies and case studies of students that have used them.
Samaritans
Their template includes an example of a completed safety plan.
Questions include:
- What I need to do to reduce the risk of me acting on suicidal thoughts.
- What warning signs or triggers are there that make me feel more out of control?
- What have I done in the past that helped?
- What ways of coping do I have?
- What I will do to help calm and soothe myself
- What I will tell myself (as alternatives to the dark thoughts)?
- What would I say to a close friend who was feeling this way?
- What could others do that would help?
- Who can I call?
- A safe place I can go to…
- If I still feel suicidal and out of control…
Useful Safety Planning Websites
Suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028
Mersey Care: Our approach to safety planning
Mersey Care: Person-centred safety planning
Mind: Supporting someone who feels suicidal
Samaritans: Supporting someone with suicidal thoughts
NICE guideline: Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence
Useful resources
Papyrus guide to supporting your child: self-harm and suicide
