Depression · Safety
Stanley-Brown Safety Plan
Highest-evidence brief suicide intervention
Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention — the most tested brief intervention in suicide prevention. Fill this in with a therapist when you're steady; use it when you're not.
1. Warning signs
Thoughts, images, moods, situations that mean I'm heading into a crisis
2. Internal coping strategies
Things I can do alone to distract or ride the wave
3. People and settings that provide distraction
4. People I can ask for help
5. Professionals and agencies
Therapist, crisis line (988 in US), ER
6. Making the environment safer
Means restriction — what's removed, locked, given to someone else
Means restriction saves lives
Removing access to lethal means is the single best-supported suicide-prevention intervention. This is not overkill — it's care.