A Qualitative Mixed Methods Realist Evaluation of Safety Planning

Safety Planning is a recovery-orientated approach to risk management within mental health context. This study wants to answer the question 'how, why, for whom and it what circumstances does safety planning work? It will do this by carrying out a realist evaluation to identify programme theories by conducting a three phase study, reviewing materials of a Safety Planning training course, interviewing service users, carers and mental health professionals who have attended the training course, and/or use safety planning tools and techniques, adopting theory from existing literature and adding evaluator's insider knowledge. This data will be used to describe programme theory of safety planning that can be applied across diverse mental health settings, including NHS inpatient and community, and is designed to be adopted across different contexts. It will use a realist methodology to understand how safety planning works to develop the skills needed to manage risks associated with mental health difficulties in ways which increase an individual's quality of life.