2026-09-25 · Written by the SPS team
Build Your Personal Safety Plan
A personal safety plan is a written document you prepare while stable, listing your own warning signs, coping strategies, people and places that help, who to call for support, and how to make your environment safer, so you have a clear plan to follow if things get dark again.
Step 1: Your personal warning signs
Start by writing down what it looks like, for you specifically, when things start to slide. Not the general list, your list. Maybe it's a certain thought pattern, a change in your sleep, pulling away from your phone, or a specific memory that keeps resurfacing. Knowing your own early signs means you can act before a bad day becomes a crisis. Warning Signs of Suicide is a good starting reference if you're not sure where to begin.
Step 2: Internal coping strategies
List things you can do on your own, without needing anyone else, to bring the intensity down even slightly. A specific playlist, a cold shower, going outside, journaling, praying a specific psalm, a breathing exercise. Write down what actually works for you, not what you think should work.
Step 3: People and places that help without needing to explain
Some people and settings are calming just by being around them, even without talking about what's going on. A coffee shop, a specific friend's house, church, a gym. List a few. These are your low-effort first move when you need to get out of your own head.
Step 4: People to call, and the crisis numbers
List two or three people you trust who you could call or message if you needed to talk. Then keep the crisis numbers with this plan: SADAG Suicide Crisis Line, 0800 567 567, free and available 24/7. SADAG office line, 011 234 4837 (8am to 8pm, not a crisis line). Childline SA, 116, free for under-18s. For the full list, see our Get Help page.
Step 5: Making your environment safer
If you have access to medication, sharp objects, or anything else you could use to harm yourself, ask someone you trust to hold onto it for a while, or store it somewhere less immediately accessible. This isn't dramatic, it's the same logic as locking up medication around a toddler, removing an easy option buys you time, and time is what a safety plan is for.
Keep it somewhere you can find it
Write this out, whether on your phone, on paper in your wallet, or stuck to your mirror, and treat it as a real plan, not a worksheet you filled in once. If you've just come through an attempt, this plan matters even more, read Life After a Suicide Attempt for what recovery actually looks like alongside it.
"The LORD will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
— Psalm 121:7-8