Staff Perspectives of Safety Planning as a Suicide Prevention Intervention for People of Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Background.

Safety planning involves the co-development of a personalized list of coping strategies to prevent a suicide crisis. We explored the perspectives of workers regarding safety planning as a suicide prevention strategy for people of refugee background and those seeking asylum in Australia. Participants attended suicide prevention training, specific to refugees and asylum seekers, at which safety planning was a key component. Semistructured, posttraining interviews ( = 12) were analyzed thematically. Four key themes were identified: safety planning as a co-created, personalized activity for the client; therapeutic benefits of developing a safety plan; barriers to engaging in safety planning; strategies to enhance safety planning engagement. First-hand refugee and asylum-seeker experiences were not included. As a relatively low-cost, flexible intervention, safety planning may be valuable and effective for these groups.