Our General Approach To Service Care


Develop awareness of your suicidal state. Voice out immediately and seek help early. Comply with all safety measures and commit fully to care. Please keep in mind to help us so that we can help you.

 Together, we can break the cycle of suicidal behaviour. 

Note: 

Taking care of people with mental health and suicidal issues can be physically and mentally challenging. We kindly ask that you treat everyone you meet with decency and kindness so that they do not feel emotionally drained. If you feel that someone has done well, let us know so we can compliment our volunteer. If someone is engaging in inappropriate behaviour, let us know too so we can take swift disciplinary action. 

We care for you better when you keep a lookout for us. This is how we can improve our initiative and help everyone as best as we can.


We believe that keeping you safe is of paramount importance. This is why we are absolutely honest and transparent with what we share here so you don't have to second guess our intentions and standard operating procedures. We keep in place stringent rules for both volunteers and people who seek help. These rules are not meant to discourage you from help-seeking but to encourage you to take ownership of your own life. We enforce self-responsibility because if you are unable to exercise control over your actions, your safety is out of our hands. We will support you the best we can but this is not the same as giving your life to us to manage.

You are fully responsible for what you do at all times even if you are mentally ill or experiencing personal distress. These actions include any form of harm you might inflict on yourself and others. If you are currently seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist, it is also crucial that you remain accountable for your own health by adhering to treatment and taking your medications as prescribed.

To maximise safety and reduce risk of harm to self and others, it is crucial for us to ask for your full name, contact number, address and contact details of at least one safety contact, who can be a trusted family member or friend. 

Compliance is mandatory to access the services we offer here. 

This information is strictly private and used in emergency situations only. Your details will be deleted immediately once you are no longer in the service. 

We adopt a collaborative approach which involves discussion and mutually agreeing upon a safety plan for you (i.e, for those involved in the intervention programme). This is meant to build a supportive alliance and increase compliance. We ask that you commit to the plan as it could make the difference between life and death in a crisis episode when you are unable to think clearly. A collaborative approach also requires trust and honesty. We trust you to seek help when you are in danger and maintain honesty with details such as mental health conditions, contact details and safety contacts. On our part, we will never give up on you as long as you are determined to journey with us. 

Do not be afraid if you experience episodes of distress or suicidal crises. It is normal for one's psychological condition to fluctuate according to different situational factors. You won't necessarily be apprehended by the police if you disclose your current situation to our volunteers. The earlier you disclose when you feel out of sorts, the easier it is for us to intervene and bring you to safety. There is a difference between someone threatening suicide to achieve emotional manipulation and another person feeling suicidal because of genuine emotional reasons. You don't have to be scared of the mislabel of attention-seeking when you are really in need of help. With adversity comes opportunities for growth, so let us work together to help you pick up the pieces and rebuild a better life.  

Safety and confidentiality are equally important. Due to the nature of our work, we may collect data which is used to monitor your recovery and to keep you safe. We understand the importance of confidentiality because it creates a trusting relationship which is conducive to helping you recover. We do not disclose your information unless you are at imminent risk of harm to self and others. To ensure safety and confidentiality are maintained, always be compliant and commit to the programme fully. This reduces the risk of your behaviour worsening and requiring external intervention. 

Principles of Engagement


Your well-being is contingent on how well we are allowed to understand you and how much you cherish and remain responsible for yourself. 


Disclaimer: Release of liability

By engaging our services, you hereby indemnify and agree to keep The SAFE U Initiative, its management team, volunteers and partnering organisations fully indemnified against all claims, loss or damage whatsoever in respect of death, injury, disability or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from any cause in connection with any programmes conducted by the initiative or participation therein.

We ask that you follow these principles at all times: 


1. Honesty & Transparency: We expect clients and volunteers to be upfront about their mental health status and motives to create a safe space for all. We need to know how best to help you. Hiding your mental condition and suicidality can be extremely dangerous to the volunteer and you.

2. Reciprocity: We treat you with kindness and all we ask is that you do not abuse or traumatise our volunteers.

3. Cherish yourself: If you do not cherish the chance to be supported in the community, there are very few options besides involuntary admission. Please consider carefully the consequences of posing a risk to yourself and others. We urge you to reflect upon the importance of compliance in keeping your autonomy intact.

4. Commitment: If you have the intention of shopping around for different mental health programmes, please do not approach us. Community support is an arduous process which requires an individual to be fully committed instead of disengaging as and when you like. If you have called a hotline and hung up on a phone call, I would like you to just think about what the volunteer is emotionally going through as he/she ponders whether you have attempted suicide after the call. When you do something like that, you might actually traumatise the volunteer and deny someone else the opportunity to seek help. This is against the value of authenticity which we are trying to promote through our initiative.

5. Safety as first priority: We are focused on keeping our clients and volunteers safe throughout their journey with us. If you are planning or attempting suicide, please know that you will likely be apprehended by the police and conveyed to IMH for assessment. We do not wish to see that happen because this can be a traumatising experience for both the volunteer and you. We would rather that you communicate with us way before you advance to the later stages of suicide.

Most people are legitimately suffering from unbearable emotional pain and therefore have suicidal tendencies. This is understandable and we are here to support. In rare cases, however, we have seen people threatening suicide every now and then. This is considered a form of emotional exploitation of our volunteers. We urge you to avoid doing so because crying wolf can be dangerous. When you really need help, no one will listen to your cries of help again. It will not be pleasant when the police is required to intervene.

6. Know your threshold of unacceptable loss and voice out before police intervention is inevitable: This threshold relates to a person's tolerance limit for negative life event(s), which when violated exacerbates the risk of suicide.

This is set only by the person contemplating suicide and may precipitate action in a suicide ready individual. We do not know unless you voice out and let us know how and when to help. This is part of your responsibility to keep safe. If you allow the threshold to be exceeded, you leave us with no other options to intervene. This is not desirable in helping you recover within the community. Being admitted to a psychiatric institution becomes your only option.

7. Communicate more effectively and know how to get help immediately: This new principle is necessary because we often get messages of 'I need help' from social media accounts which do not reply. We hope you can help us by elaborating on ‘I need help because...’ or ‘You can help me by...’. If you are facing a mental health crisis, please call the IMH Mental Health Helpline at 6389 2222 as they operate 24 hours. If you are in danger, call ambulance 995. If you are experiencing a difficult moment, having someone you can trust around you can safeguard you. If you are alone, moving to a different environment which does not stimulate you can be helpful too. 

Getting your message across ensures that you get the right help at the right moment while having knowledge of the different resources available to you immediately can alleviate your situation in a significant manner. 

Why are we insisting on these principles?

These principles of engagment were introduced because individuals who seek help are ultimately responsible for their own well-being

Importantly, we do not encourage a victim narrative as it can undermine efforts to empower individuals to make meaningful changes to their lives. 

In psychodynamic theory, a profound internal split occurs following the experience of intense emotional states after losses in life. This split consists of a destructive ‘perpetrator’ aspect and a vulnerable ‘victim’ aspect, with the ‘perpetrator’ often dominating the ‘victim’ in the lead up to suicide. 

A victim narrative perpetuates the suicidal process which is already filled with destructive tendencies. Some individuals may attribute negative life events to themselves and believe that change is impossible. With time, they could end up giving up on making things better or resort to passive coping skills in a maladaptive state known as learned helplessness. This state results in a pervasive sense of hopelessness which is common in suicidality. 

We wish to achieve a balance between providing help and empowering people to proactively seek help in a responsible manner. This balance does not equate to being selective or discriminative. It is simply necessary to make changes so as to modify our culture of help for the better. 

A person ready to connect and embrace change will have a better outcome than someone who disengages and simply asks for a solution. 


How do you begin this journey of change ? It is as easy as following our principles of engagement, nothing more nothing less. 

The Safe U Approach 

Our unique approach covers the three main focus areas of mental health, suicide intervention and life & death education (LDE). We don't just ask you to stay alive. We want you to flourish and go on to lead a life of self-actualisation through promotion of mental wellbeing and prevention of self-injurious behaviour (including self harm and suicide). In addition, self-actualisation can be facilitated by helping individuals develop psychological resilience and providing them with the means to cope better with the detrimemtal effects of grief and loss. When we turn towards life by re-evaluating the option of suicide, we are already taking a major step towards living a life of meaning and purpose.  

To achieve our aims, a safe space will be created utilising the advantages of bilingualism and biculturalism. These concepts will be discussed later. 

 星洲守护心灵企划的方案覆盖了心理卫生,自杀干预和生死教育的领域。我们不仅希望您能活着,我们更希望您在生活中蓬勃发展,实现自我价值!这种生活以促进心理健康和预防自我伤害(包括自残和自杀)为基础。

此外,我们的企划通过帮助个人培养心理韧性,并为他们提供更好应对悲痛和失落负面影响的方式,也能够促进自我实现。当大家能通过重新评估自杀的选择而转向生活时,这本身就是迈向有意义和有目的生活的重要一步。

为了实现这一目标,本企划将创建一个安全空间,充分利用双语和双文化的优势。这些构思将在后文详细讨论。

Why bilingualism and biculturalism?

At Safe U, we strongly believe in using a model based on bilingualism and biculturalism, known as the Sociocultural Dissuation Model (SDM)

Why dissuation and not deterrence? Deterrence implies a wilful act which is contrary to societal norms. Dissuation is a nod to our emphasis on self-autonomy and compassion, which are meant to promote a sense of agency. 

The most practical reason for such a model is increased accessbility to psychological help. When we incorporate language and culture into mental health, the result is multiple scaffolding which encompasses support structures as diverse as cultural resilience, collectivistic mindset, strong community support, family bonding and access to mental health resources beyond that of a single language or culture. 

On a deeper level, the mental health effects are amplified. We do not have to settle for a single meaning to account for different significant protective or adverse life events. 

In suicide, for example, its unstable nature results in multiple interpretations of life events which provide room for interventions to create alternative meanings or reframing of the suicide narrative.


Language and culture further facilitates perspective taking from different angles, providing a holistic view of potentially distressful life situations. As we go down even deeper, our inner working models oscillate betwen different linguistic and cultural inputs and gradually integrate them into a flexible model that regulates our thoughts and emotions. Such a state promotes resilience and enables psychological buffering.

At the heart of all these processes is the formation of self-identity and self-awareness. A stable self-identity protects us from environmental insults and maintains a sense of completeness. We also become more aware of the self and the present as we are anchored by socio-cultural support structures.  

We leave you with two quotes to ponder over the importance of language and culture in mental health.

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Culture is simply the hospitality of the intellect. Your mind is open to new ideas and larger views; when they enter, you know how to receive them, and to entertain, to be entertained, and take what they have to offer without allowing them to dominate you.

Thomas Kettle

为什么坚持双语双文化?

在星洲守护心灵企划,我们坚信采用基于双语和双文化的模型, 称为社会文化劝阻模型(SDM)。

为什么是“劝阻”而不是“威慑”?因为“威慑”暗示了一种违背社会规范的故意行为。而“劝阻”则体现了我们对自主性和同理心的重视,旨在增强个体的自主意识。

这个模型最实际的采用理由,就是提高心理支援的可及性。当我们将语言和文化融入心理健康时,结果就是多重支撑结构的整合。这些支撑结构包括文化韧性、集体主义思维、强大的社区支持、家庭纽带以及在单一语言或文化之外获得心理健康资源的机会。

从更深层次来看,心理健康的效果也得到了加强。我们不必仅仅依赖单一的意义来解释具保护性或不良的重大事件。

以自杀为例子,由于其不稳定的性质,生活中的事件可以被多种方式解读,从而为自杀干预提供了空间,引导人们创造不同的意义或对自杀叙事的重构。


语言和文化能进一步促进从不同角度进行视角转换的能力,让人们面对痛苦的生活情境时保持全面的看法。再更深层次的是,我们的内在工作模式会在不同的语言和文化输入之间摆动,并逐渐将其整合为一个灵活的模式,以调节我们的思维和情感。这种状态促进了韧性,并为心理缓冲提供支持。

这些过程的核心是自我认同和自我意识的形成。稳定的自我认同保护我们免受外界的伤害,并保持完整感。同时,我们通过社会文化支持结构的支撑将变得更加意识到自我和活在当下。

我们留给您两个关于语言和文化的名言,让您了解它们在心理健康中的重要性:


“语言是人类心灵的武器库,它既包含过去的战利品,又蕴藏着未来征服的武器。”  

—— 塞缪尔·泰勒·柯尔律治

“文化只是智力的款待。你的思想对新观念和更广阔的视野敞开,当它们进入时,你知道如何接纳它们,去接待,去娱乐,从中汲取它们所能提供的,而不让它们主导你。” 
 
—— 托马斯·凯特尔

What is a 'Safe Space'?

The Asia's first 'Safe Space' created by Safe U is a comprehensive system of principles and interventions which permeate the three focus areas of mental health, sucide intervention and life & death education. 


At the heart of what we do is the inculcation of a sense of responsibility in both volunteers and individuals who come to us for help. We keep the barriers to access low so that more people can receive timely help. We also value the importance of autonomy and focus on community rehabilitation to reduce involuntary admissions where possible. To achieve these principles, we adopt a novel strategy known as BECA which involves the use of behavioural economics to improve suicide-related decision making. When individuals are in a suicidal state, they are often affected by negative thinking and feelings which impede their ability to make decisions rationally. We step in and help guide them to make a life-saving decision as choice architects, taking into account their right to maintain autonomy at all times

To ensure that we can evaluate suicide risk realistically and holistically, we created a model called ASM. This model is different from existing risk stratification models which predicts suicide extremely poorly. A move from prediction to evaluation is not only necessary for pragmatic reasons but may help create highly effective support systems which are individualised, compassionate and positive-based.

Both BECA and ASM can be used individually or combined as BECA-ASM depending on situational requirements. 

We run a series of regular workshops and projects. However, our flagship programmes stand out as being client-focused, highly experiential and explicitly cover the preventive, acute and recovery phases.

1. Preventive: The Safe U Barrier-Focused Suicide Prevention Procedure © , Suicide & Mental Distress Gatekeeper (SMDG) Workshop, Safe U Psychological Safe Space (PSS) Programme for workplaces and schools, Death Experience Workshop (Basic and Advanced), Safe U Psychological First Aid (PFA) Workshop (first created as a request from Project First Aid, National University of Singapore and fully available to the public).

2. Acute: Safe U Suicide Intervention Programme, also known as SAFE UP ©. This is also the core component of our initiative and deals specifically with low to moderate-high episodes of mental distress and suicidal crisis which would otherwise commonly result in involuntary admission. The Safe U Self-Harm Mitigation Programme © also feeds directly into SAFE UP ©.

3. Recovery-oriented: Death Experience Workshop (Basic and Advanced), The Catharsis Portal Project, The Triple P Experiential Group, Imagery Coping Programme (ICP).

什么是安全空间?


星洲守护心灵企划创建的亚洲首个“安全空间”是一个全面的系统,覆盖了一系列的原则和干预措施,同时也涵盖了心理健康、自杀干预以及生死教育三个重点领域。

我们工作的核心是培养志工和寻求者的责任感。我们保持低门槛,以便更多人能够及时获得帮助。我们还重视自主性的必要性,并专注于社区康复,尽可能减少强制入院。为了实现这些原则,我们采用了一种名为 BECA 的新策略,利用行为经济学改善与自杀相关的决策。当一个人处于自杀状态时,他们通常会受到负面思维和情绪的影响,并妨碍他们做出理性的决策。我们以“选择架构师”的身份介入并引导他们做出挽救生命的决策,同时始终考虑维护他们保持自主权。

为了确保我们能够现实且全面地评估自杀风险,我们创建了 ASM 模型。现有的风险分层模型在预测自杀方面表现极差。我们将重点从预测转向评估,不仅实际应用中更为必要,还有助于建立高度有效的支持系统,使其更加个性化、富有同理心,并以积极为导向。

BECAASM 可单独使用,也可根据具体情况结合使用,形成 BECA-ASM

我们定期举办一系列讲座和项目。然而,我们的旗舰项目尤为突出,专注于以人为本和高度体验感,涵盖了预防、急性干预和康复三个阶段。 

预防阶段:Safe U 防护性自杀预防程序 © 、自杀与心理困扰守门员(SMDG)工作坊、Safe U 心理安全空间 (PSS) 项目:适用于职场和学校 、死亡体验工作坊(基础和高阶)、Safe U 心理急救课程(PFA)。

急性阶段
Safe U 自杀干预项目,也称为SAFE UP ©。这也是我们企划核心中的核心,专门针对精神困扰和自杀风险属于低至中高的族群。在没有此项目的情况下,这些人通常有可能会被强制留医。Safe U 自残行为缓解项目也将直接融入SAFE UP ©。

康复导向
死亡体验工作坊 (基础和高阶)、“心灵宣泄之门”项目、Triple P (精神兼创伤后成长及积极解体)体验小组和意象应对计划(ICP)。



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