Personalized Safety Plan Template for Suicidal Thoughts

A completed safety plan helps you anticipate how to handle a crisis. Generally, it focuses on limiting your access to harmful items such as guns, knives, or pharmaceuticals, paying attention to warning signs that a crisis is developing, identifying coping strategies that work for you, listing public places you can go so you are not alone, and identifying safe folks and local resources you can turn to when you are overwhelmed. In addition, research shows that safety plans are effective in reducing suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and deaths by suicide by helping folks who are suicidal ride out their periods of deepest pain. These moments feel like they will last forever, but they generally pass, and if you can get through them with a plan and the help of others, you will survive to experience life more fully again.

This is an example of a safety plan you can use when you are feeling suicidal, are pulled toward self-harm, or are in crisis. I created this plan by looking at other safety plans and using my past experience as a trained volunteer crisis counselor for Alameda County’s Crisis Support Services. Fill it out with a therapist or a trusted friend or family member, ideally during a calmer moment. The most important thing is that the plan fits your needs and is something you will turn to when you are overwhelmed and can’t think straight.

If you are looking for crisis resources local to the East San Francisco Bay and California, look at my local resource page, which also includes lower cost therapy providers. The 988 Lifeline (links to a PDF) is another trusted resource for safety plans.

Click on the image to download a PDF copy.