The people doing this work are the resource the program actually runs on, and the only one with no budget line.
On screening day
Someone owns the planners. Not the queue owner, who is busy and who structurally needs the planner to keep going. A different person, who reads the wellbeing question on the debrief form and is empowered to tell a planner to stop for the day.
The person who says they are fine at 2pm is often the one who should have stopped at noon.
Four safety plans in a day is a lot. The fourth conversation is not the same as the first, and the person having it is usually the last to notice.
✓ Take Action. Name that person before screening week, by name, on the work plan. Give them the authority out loud, in front of the team, so using it is not an act of courage.
The debrief that is not about the students
At the end of each screening day, fifteen minutes. Not care coordination, which is separate and which will expand to fill the time if you let it.
Three questions:
- What was hard today?
- Is anyone carrying something they want to hand off?
- Who needs something before tomorrow?
The people this work lands on differently
Critical Reflection. Somebody on your team has their own history with this. Statistically, several people do. Nobody is obliged to say so, and nobody should be asked.
What that means practically: opting out of safety planning is available without explanation, in advance and on the day. A planner who says they need to sit this one out gets a thank you and no questions.
That has to be established before screening week, because nobody will ask for it on Tuesday morning in front of the team.
The training carries a participant safety protocol for the same reason. The toolkit carries a note at the front that it discusses suicide directly. See Module 0.1.
Over a year
Screening weeks are intense and they end. The thing that wears people down is not the week; it is carrying the care coordination list through November while everything else continues.
Watch for: the same person doing every safety plan. Follow-up quietly not happening. A planner who stops volunteering.
Those are capacity signals, not attitude problems.
The person nobody watches
In a small school, the safety planner, the queue owner and the follow-up owner are often the same person. That is survivable for a week and not for a year.
✓ Take Action. If one name appears in three roles on your work plan, that is the finding. Either find a second name or screen one grade rather than a school. See Module 0.7.
