Hey there!
Having concerns about suicide for your teen can be extremely worrying. As a parent, you play an important role in supporting your teen who might be having thoughts of suicide, or like their mental health is spiralling out of control. You might be wondering, what are some of the things you can do to support them? To get started, know the warning signs of suicide and where you can go for help . If you’ve noticed your teen is displaying signs that they may be considering suicide, it’s important to have a conversation about suicide . If your teen tells you that they are having thoughts of suicide, it’s super important to ensure that you get them help that they need.
What can you do next?
Help your teen create a safety plan! When things start to feel like they are out of control for your teen, it can be extremely helpful to be prepared ahead of time, and to have a plan of the next steps to take to keep them safe. A safety plan is a document that maps out your teen’s mental health needs and guides them through their coping strategies when their mental health starts to spiral. It’s all about what works for your teen, so it should contain any information that might be useful to them or the people in their life when things are getting out of control. Some things to consider including in a safety plan are:
Identifying your warning signs
Making your environment safe
Reminders of the reasons for living
Family and friends you can reach out to
Professional support
Crisis support lines
Once you’ve helped your teen brainstorm some things to include in their safety plan, encourage them to hand-write or type it up, save a copy on their devices, or print out some copies to have in the places they’d be most helpful.
It’s also a great idea to encourage your teen to consider who they might like to share their safety plan with. Sharing the plan with supportive people in their life might help those people know how they can help. For some, safety plans are really personal, so if it’s something your teen prefers to keep private, that is completely fine too!
To get started on helping your teen create their safety plan, check out this article . Also check out Sue’s story here about how she and her daughter Chloe worked through Chloe’s mental health challenges together, for some inspiration!
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