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This page provides day-to-day suggestions that can help you to manage your wellbeing and information on safety planning that can be used to help keep yourself safe.
If you are struggling with mental health challenges, including thoughts of suicide, there are things that you can do to help yourself. Remember, you are not alone, and help is available.
It is important to try to support your wellbeing and keep yourself safe. Oftentimes people can develop tools or strategies that can be used on a daily or regular basis to help support overall wellness and increase resiliency. Some suggestions for coping day-to-day are:
A safety plan is “a document that supports and guides someone when they are experiencing thoughts of suicide, to help them avoid a state of intense suicidal crisis” (Centre for Suicide Prevention, 2019). A safety plan may help to keep someone safe from suicide by identifying the individuals’ strengths, including coping strategies that can be used, people that can be contacted for support, and reasons to live.
Safety plans can be effective because the individual experiencing thoughts of suicide is a co-creator of the plan and identifies a range of options for coping and support, helping them to feel like they have some control. A safety plan aims to create a safer environment through reducing access to lethal means of suicide. It also focuses on what the person can do, instead of can’t do, and emphasizes the collaborative
A safety plan should be developed during a period of mental wellbeing, or when an individual is stable and no longer experiencing crisis. Safety plans are often co-developed with a member of your support team or a trusted loved one. You also may be able to develop a safety plan on your own. It can be created in one-sitting, or can involve a process over a period of time.
There are different versions of safety plans, but most include identifying and listing the following components:
It is important to review the safety plan regularly and to revise it as often as needed. It can also be helpful to review the safety plan after it is used, to edit any coping skills or contact persons who were not accessible or effective.
For a more detailed explanation of each step, including guiding questions and examples, check out the Safety Plans to Prevent Suicide toolkit by the Centre for Suicide Prevention here.
Although the definition of a safety plan mentions that it can be a document, there are actually a number of different formats you can use for your safety plan. Formats for safety plans may include:
Safety plans to prevent suicide – Centre for Suicide Prevention (suicideinfo.ca)
This toolkit provides a deeper explanation of safety planning and the seven steps to developing a safety plan.
This website is operated by Vibrant Emotional Health and is a web-based platform to help you develop your safety plan. After completing the form, users have the option to send the safety plan to themselves via text or email, or can save it to their device as a PDF.
Centre for Suicide Prevention (2019). Safety plans to prevent suicide. Accessed from: Safety plans to prevent suicide – Centre for Suicide Prevention (suicideinfo.ca)
Marshall, C. et al. (2022). Effectiveness of suicide safety planning interventions: A systemic review informing occupational therapy. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 1-29.
Nuij, C. et al. (2021). Safety planning-type interventions for suicide prevention: meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 219,4129-426.