Writing a safety plan: the Stanley-Brown method, step by step

A safety plan (the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention, used in suicide-prevention clinical practice and supported by evidence that safety-plan provision is associated with reduced suicide attempts) is written in a calm moment, with a clinician or a trusted person, and kept where the crisis can find it: wallet, phone notes, fridge door.

The six steps

1. Warning signs. Your personal early signals — thoughts ("I'm a burden"), moods, behaviors (stopping answering messages), situations (3 a.m., alcohol). Specific, concrete, personal.

2. Internal coping strategies — things you can do alone that help even 10%: walking, cold shower, a specific playlist, breathing pattern, prayer, gaming, a friend's show you've seen 40 times. List 3–5.

3. People and places that provide distraction — not for talking about the crisis, for getting out of your head: a café, the library, a colleague you chat with, the market. Distraction is a legitimate crisis skill; it buys the wave time to pass.

4. People you can ask for help — names, with phone numbers, in order of likelihood. Tell them what to expect: "If I text you the word 'storm', I need you to come/call/come with me to the ER."

5. Professionals and agencies — therapist and prescriber numbers, crisis lines (Georgia: 112; findahelpline.com for your country), the nearest emergency department with its address. Written out, not memorized — the crisis brain does not retrieve.

6. Making the environment safe. The most evidence-relevant step: means restriction. Lethal means in the home (firearms, stockpiled medications, pesticides, toxic chemicals) are the crisis's weapon; removing them — a lockbox with a neighbor's key, medication quantities limited, a family member holding the stock — measurably reduces suicide deaths, because the crisis is brief and the method is permanent.

The rules of the plan

• One page. Large print. Photos allowed (the face of the person who anchors you).
• Rehearsed: read it once in a calm week; the crisis brain follows a practiced path.
• Shared: at least one person knows it exists and where it lives.
• Updated: after every crisis, add what worked.

If writing this feels urgent

If you are reading this because the plan is for tonight: Georgia emergency 112; the international directory findahelpline.com shows your country's crisis line in minutes. A crisis is an emergency, and emergencies are for calling.