The SAFE U Initiative will dedicate ourselves to cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity where all volunteers and participants of our programmes feel safe and respected.

We do this by ensuring everyone involved with Safe U will be treated with utmost care and dignity, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and physical ability. 

Our culture focuses on authenticity, responsibility and safety. We strongly believe in promoting diversity and inclusion through these values by creating a supportive environment in a sometimes inauthentic world so that everyone is free to pursue their dreams and work towards self-actualisation.

 In the line of our work, we have also encountered a few LGBTQIA2S+ volunteers and participants. We would like to assure them that we offer a non-judgmental and inclusive environment for them to feel valued and supported. Our sincere wish is for them to embrace their authentic self. 

What makes us different?

Quite simply, our suicide intervention programme is evidence-based and constantly pushing the boundaries beyond what has been achieved with the limited suicide support existing in Singapore. You won't find a similar one in Singapore and Asia because our work is highly original and experiential. We are not another peer support initiative or crisis hotline. We have moved ahead of the curve in Singapore's National Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy by integrating different tiers of care within our programme. 

We resolve what is known as the ‘Suicide Prevention Paradox'.

Many people who die by suicide are not necessarily identified as high-risk or have a severe mental illness.

The traditional medicalised model focuses on diagnosis, risk stratification and clinical treatment for individuals deemed at risk of harm to self and others. We balance the mental health system by filling the huge service gap existing between lower level psychological support (peer support & hotlines) and high level psychiatric services (IMH) in Singapore. No one will be denied help just because a person does not fit a one-size-fits-all approach. 

We close the gap by focusing on self-empowered suicide-specific care for vulnerable individuals while targeting the broader population with meticulously designed mental health and social interventions aimed at hope and recovery.

Our approach is collaborative and person-centred as it leads to better recovery outcomes. High levels of trust and reciprocity between individuals in need and volunteets are paramount to success. Clients assume a greater level of ownership of their mental health situation and are more self-efficacious as compared to care within a psychiatric setting. Such interpersonal trust and reciprocity are social capital which function as effective deterrents against suicide. 

In particular, interpersonal trust is significantly associated with reduced perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, which are proximal causes of suicidal desire.

To reiterate our trustworthiness, the initiative has zero intention to profiteer since we are 100% voluntary. Collaborations with like-minded partners allow our services to be pro/low bono and accessible across Singapore. Since we do not earn a profit, most of the fees are related only to external costs or used to fund further programmes. 

Last but not least, we are the only mental health organisation in Singapore which has a bilingual and bicultural focus. This is reflected distinctively in the way we blend language and culture in what we do. This is crucial given that we are essentially an Asian society whereas most mental health approaches focus on a Western perspective and therefore lack sufficient cultural adaptation to the Singaporean context. Languages often determine how we perceive and mentally construct the world around us, thereby influencing how positive or negative our mindsets can be. Such influences consequently affect our reactions to adverse situations. You don't necessarily have to be fluent or proficient in a particular language or culture to benefit from our approach. It can be as simple as perspective taking and making sense of your self-identity.

Our Mottoes

We Journey With You To Give Life A Second Chance

破茧重生

We have two mottoes in English and Chinese to reflect Singapore's bilingualism. Our commitment is to be a beacon of hope so that you never have to walk alone hopelessly in the darkness during times of adversity. We also strive to help you turn away from death and move towards life, so that you can start to appreciate the beauty of your existence. 

Our Missions

1. To destigmatise suicide and mental health by reducing involuntary psychiatric admissions in Singapore.

2. To provide dignified and effective suicide and mental health support in a bilingual and culturally sensitive manner.

3. To promote life & death education (LDE) as an important socio-cultural approach to mental wellbeing and suicide prevention.

The focus is on being compassionate to mentally vulnerable individuals who would otherwise fall 
through the existing service gap in the local mental health services or experience discrimination due to 
their mental health conditions. 

We follow the idea of “治病于初萌，防范于未然”. 

This means that we believe in managing a mental health condition in its early stages and to prevent a suicidal situation from arising in the first place. We emphasise the importance of early intervention and preventive measures so that destigmatisation as well as dignified and effective support can be achieved successfully. 

We also go beyond conventional death education to explore the relationship between life and death. This unique approach facilitates a complete transformation from near-death to fulfiling a life of meaning in life and purpose. We don't just teach you how to live. You experience what death is like and take home with you a personal and intimate experience which will change your outlook on life.   

Our Vision

Our vision is to be a model of effective suicide intervention in Asia. We aspire to be a catalyst for change in the way suicide support is provided in Singapore. 

This is reflected in the way we work outside the system to create our own original methods, procedures, workshops and programmes. It constitutes an intensive and time consuming process which is required to bring about effective and long-lasting change.

Aa part of our ethical duty, we perform a thorough examination of existing local mental health and suicide prevention/intervention programmes and reject plaigarisation by unethical individuals as safety should never be compromised under any circumstances. These individuals whom we are aware of include self-proclaimed psychologists and mental health advocates who profit from lived experience (real or imagined). Unfortunately, the situation is more pervasive than expected. Complicity is something we will never tolerate. 

Despite challenges within the existing ecosystem, we will continue to persevere and strive towards completing our reimagination of mental health and suicide support in Singapore and Asia. 

This is what we stand for. 

Always. 

“One life can save the world”

The statement expresses our emphasis on changing one life at a time. Each person has a completely different life journey from everyone else. Suicide isn't simply a statistic and success outcomes cannot be measured by the number of phone calls and messages received or the amount of money spent on programmes. 

The question is:  

Have we been transforming lives permanently or have we been averting suicide temporarily under the illusion that people are just numbers?

A life will never be defined by a number. As we do our utmost to increase outreach in the hope that more people will benefit, we must still recognise the unique qualities of each and every person.
 

When we focus on the individual, we strive to help you write your own future by make lasting changes in the way you think, feel and behave. We seek to change the current situation where individuals ‘float’ around the mental health ecosystem due to unmet needs. We also check if the quality of care received by an individual is indeed commensurate with the statistics reported by various mental health organisations. 

By transforming a person, we are essentially amplifying the impact a life can have on the world around him/her. If you wonder how this can be true, perhaps you can recall how Steve Jobs revolutionised the way we think about and use technology forever or even how Elon Mask is currently single-handedly transforming electric vehicles and space exploration. We do not have to be a Steve Jobs or Elon Musk to make an impact on society. 

We can become the social proof that drives the shift in social norms and normalises the path for others.

  The transformation starts from changing each small living moment which influences one's day. One personally significant day can go on to alter a person's life. A life transformed inspires the whole world by acting as a catalyst for change. By delving deeper into the individual, we are in fact providing sustainable person-centred care which permeates throughout the entire society. Less is more.

This is social impact redefined.