Digital Tools to Help Ourselves and Each Other

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people are seeking help online, Vibrant launched Safe Space, a suite of digital emotional support tools making it easier for people to get help for themselves and each other when they need it most.
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Vibrant’s Safe Space provides evidence-based self-help tools, education, and resources to people looking for support alongside crisis services, such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, as well as for people in emotional distress who may not be inclined to use a crisis hotline service. The first and current iteration of the Safe Space includes Now Matters Now, the MY3 App, Lifeline’s Crisis Chat, and a variety of breathing, calming, and other sensory tools. The Safe Space also utilizes distraction techniques to calm and soothe visitors.

Empowering people to choose their own digital supports can have a positive impact on mental health and suicide prevention. Distraction itself is proven to help someone in crisis regain control, decrease distress, and ground them. One user shared about the site, "It really calmed me down and distracted me making me forget about my thoughts and crisis I was going through. I was about to harm myself. This saves lives."
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It's gratifying to get such positive feedback from individuals on how much the Safe Space has impacted them.
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In addition to sharing feedback, visitors to the site are encouraged to vote for resources that are most helpful to them, allowing us to regularly re-evaluate for reported satisfaction and inform decisions about new items to be added or developed for the site.

The Safe Space is an example of multiple groups coming together to pool their skills to create new resources, with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s Standards, Training, and Practices team providing digital clinical guidance and insight, and Vibrant’s Communications supporting messaging and branding. The development of Safe Space was also done in collaboration with the three national advisory committees of the Lifeline, especially the Lived Experience Committee. We look forward to building a stronger Safe Space in the future that further incorporates insights and contributions across sectors, and the development of more tools that can empower people in crisis to find the support that best helps them--when they need it most--on their terms.