Three instruments. SAFER tells you which ones to use rather than asking you to choose, because nothing strategic that requires time.
What is in it
C-SSRS Screener, administered electronically.
The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale screener version. Six items, moving from passive ideation through method, intent, plan, and lifetime behaviour, with a follow-up on whether behaviour occurred in the past three months. It is the item set that produces the risk level.
A naming note that matters: SAFER uses the C-SSRS Screener delivered on a device. This is not the eC-SSRS, which is a separate licensed product. Describe it correctly in your materials.
PHQ-9A.
The adolescent version of the Patient Health Questionnaire. Nine items, depression severity. Five bands: minimal, mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe.
GAD-7.
Seven items, anxiety severity. Four bands: minimal, mild, moderate, severe.
GAD-7 has four bands and PHQ-9A has five. That is correct and not an error.
What each one is for
| Instrument | Answers | Produces |
|---|---|---|
| C-SSRS Screener | How dangerous is this, right now? | The risk level |
| PHQ-9A | How much depression is this student carrying? | Severity band, context |
| GAD-7 | How much anxiety? | Severity band, context |
The most common mistake in reading these is covered in Module 5.1 and it is worth reading before screening day, not after. The score tells you how many symptoms. The level tells you how dangerous. They are different questions from different instruments.
What is not in the battery
No substance use instrument. Substance use is screened at safety planning, with an individual student who has already screened positive, to determine whether substance use modifies or amplifies their suicide risk. The reasoning, including the legal reasoning, is in Module 9.6.
Nothing about trauma history, family circumstances or identity is asked as a screening item.
Some schools choose to collect gender and race for equity analysis. SAFER's position is that each school decides, because the answer depends on local trust, and a demographic question in a district where students do not trust the school reduces participation more than it improves analysis.
✓ Take Action. If you do collect race or ethnicity, collect it finely and allow more than one selection. A single "Asian" box hides an eight-point spread in risk between ethnic groups, and a single-select field erases multiracial students, who are the highest-risk group in the best available data. See Modules 8.7 and 8.8.
What the instruments do not do
None of these three has been validated in every population your school serves. There is no differential item functioning research for any of them in Black, Latine, Asian American, Pacific Islander, or American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents, and no suicide screening instrument has been validated for students with intellectual disability.
That is a real limitation and it is not a reason to skip anyone. It is the reason Unit 8 exists, and specifically why Module 8.3 gives you other ways to ask when the standard question does not land.
