Clinical Reference

Safety Plan Template for Mental Health (Stanley-Brown Format)

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Reviewed by the WellNotes Clinical Team

What is a safety plan in mental health?

A safety plan is a short, written, prioritized list of warning signs, coping strategies, people and places, professional and crisis contacts, and steps to make the environment safer, which a person can use before or during a suicidal crisis. The Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention is a widely used structure for it, developed collaboratively and written in the client's own words.

If you or someone you are working with is in crisis

Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or chat at 988lifeline.org. It is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day. Veterans can call 988 and press 1. If there is an immediate danger to life, call 911.

What is the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention?

The Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention was developed by Barbara Stanley, PhD, and Gregory K. Brown, PhD. Its authors describe it as a brief, collaborative intervention between a clinician and a person at risk of suicide that aims to reduce acute risk by giving the person specific coping strategies and resources to use in a crisis. The clinician and client build the plan together, the plan uses the client's own words, and it is short and easy to read.

The form and training materials are at suicidesafetyplan.com. The form belongs to its authors; get it from the site above. This page describes the structure and shows a fictional filled example rather than reproducing the form itself. Use that form, or your organization's approved version, with clients.

A safety plan is one part of suicide care, not a replacement for it. It follows a suicide risk assessment, and it is not a "no-harm contract": it does not ask the client to promise anything, it gives them steps to take.

Safety plan template: the Stanley-Brown sections

The sections are used in order. If one step does not reduce the crisis, the person moves to the next. Each prompt below describes what the section is for; write the client's own answers on the authors' form or your organization's approved version.

Step 1: Warning signs

Warning signs
thoughts, images, moods, situations or behaviors that tell the client a crisis may be starting, in their words

Step 2: Internal coping strategies

Things I can do on my own
activities the client can do alone to take their mind off the crisis

Step 3: People and social settings that provide distraction

People and places
people to be around and safe public places, without needing to talk about the crisis

Step 4: People to ask for help

Family members or friends
people the client can tell they are in crisis, with how to reach them

Step 5: Professionals and agencies to contact

Professional contacts
clinician, after-hours line, urgent care or emergency department, 988 Lifeline

Step 6: Making the environment safer

Means safety
specific steps to limit access to lethal means, and who will help

Reasons for living (optional)

Reasons
what is most important to the client and worth living for

Safety plan example

All examples are fictional and de-identified. They show structure and level of detail, not clinical advice for a real client.

Example 1: Adult with depression after a job loss

Fictional adult outpatient client who reported suicidal thoughts without a plan two months after losing a job. The plan was written together in session.

Warning signs
"Lying in bed after noon." "Thinking everyone would be better off." Skipping meals. Not answering my sister's texts.
Internal coping strategies
Walk the dog around the park loop. Play guitar for twenty minutes. Take a hot shower and change clothes. Put on the comedy podcast.
People and places for distraction
The coffee shop on the corner. Basketball at the community center on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. A neighbor who is usually outside in the afternoon.
People to ask for help
Sister (phone saved in favorites). Close friend from the old job (phone saved). Client practiced in session what to say: "I am having a hard night and I need you to stay on the phone."
Professionals and agencies
Therapist office line during business hours. Clinic after-hours number. 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988. Nearest emergency department, address saved in phone. Emergency: 911.
Making the environment safer
Client agreed to give a stored supply of old prescription medication to the pharmacy take-back box this week; sister will go with him. No firearms in the home, confirmed by client and sister.
Reasons for living
"My nephew. Seeing the dog every morning. Getting back to work I am proud of."

How do you complete a safety plan with a client?

The Stanley-Brown guidance treats safety planning as a clinical process, not a form to hand over. In practice that means:

  1. Start from the risk assessment. Review the most recent suicidal crisis with the client to identify the warning signs that came before it.
  2. Write in the client's words. Ask open questions and record the answers as the client says them. A plan the client recognizes as their own is more likely to be used.
  3. Check each step is realistic. For every strategy and contact, ask how likely the client is to use it in a crisis and what could get in the way, then problem solve or choose an alternative.
  4. List more than one option. People are not always reachable, so each social and professional step should have backups.
  5. Make the environment safer together. Ask about access to firearms, medications and other means. Stanley-Brown guidance recommends agreeing on specific steps to make the environment safer and who will carry them out.
  6. Decide where the plan will live. Paper copy, phone photo or both, and how the client will find it in a crisis.
  7. Review it. Revisit the plan at later sessions and whenever circumstances change.

How to document the safety plan in your note

Your progress note or risk assessment should show that a plan was made and what it contains, without retyping the whole form. Record that the plan was developed collaboratively, the key coping strategies and contacts, the means safety steps agreed and who will carry them out, crisis resources given (including 988), where the client will keep the plan, and when you will review it. If you document crisis sessions in a SIRP note, the safety plan belongs in the Plan section.

Example progress note language: "Completed Stanley-Brown safety plan collaboratively; client wrote warning signs and coping strategies in own words and identified sister and friend as contacts. Client agreed to dispose of stored medications at the pharmacy this week with sister. Provided 988 Lifeline information. Client took a paper copy and a photo. Will review the plan and confirm the medication disposal next session."

Common safety plan mistakes

  • Handing the client a blank form to complete alone instead of building it together.
  • Writing generic strategies ("use coping skills") instead of the client's specific ones.
  • Listing a single contact for each step, with no backup.
  • Skipping the means safety step, or recording it without who will act and by when.
  • Treating the plan as a no-harm contract or a promise.
  • Never reviewing or updating the plan after it is written.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the steps of the Stanley-Brown safety plan?

Recognize warning signs; use internal coping strategies; go to people and social settings that provide distraction; contact family members or friends who can help; contact mental health professionals or crisis services; and make the environment safer by limiting access to lethal means. The current form also has an optional section for reasons for living.

Is a safety plan the same as a no-harm contract?

No. A no-harm contract asks a person to promise not to harm themselves. A safety plan does not ask for a promise; it lists specific actions and contacts the person can use during a crisis, developed with them and in their own words.

Who should have a safety plan?

Safety planning guidance recommends that anyone who has had a suicidal crisis receive a thorough suicide risk assessment, after which the clinician and client develop a safety plan together. Many settings also complete one when a screen is positive or risk is elevated.

Can I use the Stanley-Brown safety plan form for free?

The form belongs to its authors; get it from suicidesafetyplan.com, or use the version your organization has approved.

What crisis line should be on a safety plan?

In the United States, include the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Add local crisis services, the clinic after-hours line and the nearest emergency department, and note 911 for immediate danger.

Sources

This page is educational reference material for clinicians. It does not replace clinical judgment, supervision, or the requirements of your licensing board, payer and organization.

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