Suicide Safe newThe Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a mobile app this morning to help primary care and behavioral health providers identify suicide risk among patients. Suicide Safe is available for Apple and Android phones and tablets.

A webinar explaining the technology will happen at 12:30 today. The event is full at this point, but a video will be available on SAMHSA’s YouTube channel.

Suicide Safe was created using the best practice Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage (SAFE-T) card. The five steps include: identify risk factors, identify protective factors, conduct suicide inquiry, determine risk level/intervention, document. This pocket card for clinicians has long been used; the app allows clinicians to simply pull out their phones or tablets rather than trying to find the printed card when concerned about suicidal ideations.