In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988 in the US for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

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Safety plan template.

WRITTEN AND REVIEWED BY Shariq Refai, MD, MBA · UPDATED June 23, 2026 · ABOUT 7 MINUTES

A safety plan is a short written document you make for yourself, ideally with a clinician, that you follow when warning signs of a crisis show up. I've been recommending them to patients for years. The reason they help isn't because the steps in them are new information. It's because a brain in the middle of a crisis isn't well suited to picking from a menu of options. The plan moves the decision making out of the crisis moment, into a calmer one.

The framework most clinicians use is the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention. It's the most studied brief intervention we have for getting through a moment of high risk. The biggest finding from the research is that people who leave an emergency department with a written safety plan are less likely to attempt suicide in the months that follow, compared to people who leave without one. The means restriction step, near the end of this template, is the single highest leverage piece.

The template below follows that framework. Fill it in here, save it to your device, and print a copy to keep with you. None of what you type gets sent anywhere; the save button keeps the plan in your browser only.

Step 1. Warning signs.

Write down what you notice when things are starting to escalate. Specific thoughts, images, body sensations, situations, or behaviors that have shown up before a crisis hit. The more specific, the more useful. In my practice the most helpful entries are usually the small, concrete ones. Something a stranger reading the list wouldn't understand. That's a sign you've captured what's actually yours.

Step 2. Things I can do on my own.

List things you can do by yourself that have helped, even a little. The items don't need to be impressive. They don't need to be wellness culture. They need to be things you'll actually do. Examples I've seen work for patients: a specific song, a specific friend's apartment to drive to, a particular grounding exercise, cold water on the face, a walk to a specific corner and back, holding something cold, sitting in the shower.

Step 3. People and places that can distract.

Places or people whose presence shifts your state, even if you don't talk to them about what's happening. The goal in this step is distraction, not disclosure. The bar is low. A coffee shop where you can sit among other people. A friend's house where you don't have to explain why you're there. A family member who's steady. A park bench.

Step 4. People I can ask for help.

Two or three people you can call or text when warning signs are showing up. People who know what you live with, who don't escalate in response to it, who can come over or stay on the phone. Write their names and how to reach them, so you don't have to scroll through your contacts in a moment when scrolling is hard.

Step 5. Professionals and agencies.

Services and clinicians you can contact when peers aren't enough. Some are prefilled. Add your own clinicians and your local emergency department.

  • 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text 988. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day in the United States.
  • Crisis Text Line. Text HOME to 741741.
  • Therapist (if you have one).
  • Psychiatrist or prescribing clinician (if you have one).
  • Local emergency department.
  • Telepsychiatry option. shrinkMD for board certified evaluation, usually within a few days.

Step 6. Making the environment safer.

The strongest evidence in the whole safety plan is in this step. Limiting access to lethal means, especially during the high risk periods, reduces risk of death by suicide more than any other single intervention. Specific examples: storing firearms with a trusted person or in a locked container with ammunition stored separately; keeping medications in a locked box and giving the key to someone you trust; clearing large quantities of certain over the counter medications out of the house; asking a partner or housemate to hold prescription medication during higher risk periods; not driving alone when warning signs are present.

If this step feels difficult to plan on your own, that's a reason to ask for help with it specifically. A clinician, a 988 counselor, or a family member can think it through with you. The goal isn't a permanent restriction. The goal is a workable safety net during the periods when you need one.

Nothing gets sent anywhere. The save button keeps the plan in your browser. The print button uses your device's printer.

What we know about safety plans.

The reason a safety plan works isn't because what's in it is novel. It usually isn't. Most of what ends up on a good safety plan is something the person already knew somewhere. The mechanism is that the plan moves the decision making out of the crisis moment.

The Stanley-Brown intervention has been studied in emergency department settings and in outpatient care. The largest pragmatic trial (Stanley et al., 2018) found that patients discharged from VA emergency departments with a Stanley-Brown safety plan, plus a brief structured follow up call, were significantly less likely to attempt suicide in the six months that followed compared to usual care. The means restriction step (Step 6) carries the most weight in the evidence.

Safety plans work best when they're built with a clinician and revised over time. If you don't have a clinician right now, the template above is a reasonable starting point you can work on alone, and you can refine it later in a therapy session or in a telepsychiatry visit at shrinkMD. The version you write today doesn't have to be the final version.

If you're in crisis right now, the Crisis Resources page has the routing, including 988 and 911.

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