Can your friend stay safe?

CAN YOUR FRIEND STAY SAFE?

 

This is the point where you can assess if you need to get more help: Ask your friend if they can agree with you to ‘stay safe’ for an agreed period of time. This can be any time that you can agree. If they can’t agree a week, ask them if they can stay safe for a day. If they can’t commit to that try agreeing on one hour. If they can’t make what you believe is a genuine commitment to you that they will stick to, it is time to call in help immediately.
 

Be honest and say ‘Look I’m worried now that you are going to harm yourself, I’m going to call for help from a professional counsellor/police/doctor,  I’ll stay with you until they arrive.” Stay with them or bring them with you to a phone and make the call.

 

 

 

DISABLE THEIR PLAN

 

If your friend tell you they have made a plan to harm themselves make sure that it is disabled and made safe.

 

Go with them and get them to give you the pills/rope/bullets/car keys/knife and put them out of reach. Leaving a few tablets to go asleep may be reasonable.