This program is making a difference for veterans, and I have no doubt it would be the sme for many:
The Safety Planning Intervention is a structured process that involves six distinct steps. A healthcare provider and a patient work collaboratively to identify personal warning signs that a crisis might be developing. They also outline internal coping strategies, social contacts who can offer support, and ways to make the patient’s physical environment much safer. This creates a personalized document that the patient can easily reference before and during a severe mental health crisis.
First of all, it’s important to have a safety plan if you are at risk or any risk of self-harm, but I think these steps contribute to the success rate regardless of the content of the plan, because of what the act of planning represents. Here’s why I think it makes a difference.
We know that one of the biggest risk factors for suicide is the lack of connection to other people. When a healthcare provider sits down and starts putting together a plan with you, suddenly you’re not alone in this anymore. Someone is helping put the plan together.
When the plan includes identifying the people who can provide support, that takes it one step further. You connect with them in the shared endeavor. You identify and confirm with people who care enough about you to want to assist.
I would imagine those two things alone would make a huge impact on the risk factors.
Then, with a proper plan in place, knowing the warning signs, where to go for help, and who can help you becomes much less overwhelming, and that can make all the difference. When I struggled with ideation, it was the overwhelming feeling that I’d never get through it and no one would care that drove it. This process seems like the kind of thing that would have gotten me to a better place much quicker. I eventually found what helped and the people who knew what to do, but it was a struggle. Having a trained professional guide me through creating that plan while I was in the hospital for an illness would have jump-started that process.