While we can't predict the future, or plan for every eventuality, we can buy ourselves some time when we know what our options are for staying safe and we know when we need to use these options.
What Does a Safety Plan Do?
A safety plan:
Helps you to identify and notice when you need to prioritise your safety.
Helps you to understand what makes you feel distressed.
Helps you know what options you have before you need them.
Helps you know how to safely respond before an event occurs.
Helps you rehearse your safety response.
Helps you to review your response and learn for the future.
In this article, we’ll be exploring a safety plan for emotional health and wellbeing.
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If you’re experiencing a mental health emergency and you don’t feel you can keep yourself or other people safe, call 999 and tell the operator you’re experiencing a mental health emergency.
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Noticing, Catching, and Labelling
Think about how you feel when you’re okay.
How are your thoughts?
How does your body feel?
What emotions do your experience?
Think about how you feel when you’re starting to feel distress.
How are your thoughts?
How does your body feel?
What emotions do your experience?
What events or situations make you feel unsafe?
Think about how your mind and body start to react when you’re overwhelmed.
As we head towards crisis, the fight-flight-freeze response may be activated reducing our ability to communicate and express ourselves while also reducing our ability to problem-solve.
What happens to your communication when you’re overwhelmed? What might people around you notice?
What happens to your problem-solving when you’re overwhelmed? What type of decisions do your make and how do you make them?
Increasing your safety
Think about your safety, the reasons it’s important, and how you can increase safety while also decreasing danger.
Why is it important to stay safe?
How do you know when you’re feeling unsafe?
What can you say to yourself as encouragement to follow your safety plan?
What can you do to increase your safety?
What do you need to remove to increase your safety? For example, asking someone you trust to look after your medication if you’re having thoughts of taking too much.
Activating Self-Soothing
Think about the things you can do to look after yourself and try to be as specific as possible.
What usually brings you comfort, makes you feel calm, or helps you soothe difficult emotions?
List your coping strategies
List your soothing activities
List your distraction strategies
List your grounding strategies
Think about all what you'll need to soothe yourself.
Is there a way you can get the things you need before you’ll need them? For example, a self-soothe box can be a great resource when you need it.
Activating your Support Network
Think about the people in your life who make you feel safe and comfortable.
List the people in your life who help you feel safe and include their contact details.
Who can you go visit straight away?
Who can you ask to check-in on you?
Who can you call?
Do you have an ‘appointed person?' An appointed person can act as an emergency contact, can be someone you share your safety plan with, and someone you can ask to check-in on you more regularly if you’re struggling.
Is there a person in your life who you feel safe and comfortable nominating to be an appointment person?
Accessing Professional Support
Think about your options for professional mental health support.
Have easily accessible contact details for your General Practitioner (GP)
List the mental health resources you can access and any contact details
List your local mental health services and any contact details.
If you’re already getting professional help, list the professional involved in your care and their contact details. Share your safety plan with them so you know what days and times they’re available.
Think about when you will need to reach out to professionals.
Try to get professional support before your coping strategies and resources are no longer sufficient to manage your level of distress.
Reviewing your Plan
Think about how you can build in time and space to regularly check-in with your safety plan and how you’ll learn from your experiences. Don’t forget to update your plan each time you use it, if contact details or circumstances change, and continually add the things that work for you.