SAFXR: Safety Planning for Suicide Prevention XR
Project impact
SAFXR strengthens confidence, consistency and compassion in responses to suicidal distress through safe, immersive XR rehearsal.
It combines evidence-informed safety planning with scenario-based learning to support responder capability and workforce wellbeing.
If successful, SAFXR could inform future suicide-prevention training across health, social care, education, emergency and community settings.
An immersive learning project exploring how XR can support suicide-prevention responses while strengthening workforce mental health and resilience.
SAFXR (Safety Planning for Suicide Prevention XR) is a collaborative project led by Care Reality in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland, the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, and the University of Glasgow. The project explores how immersive, scenario-based learning can support professionals responding to people experiencing suicidal thoughts, while also supporting their own mental health and resilience. SAFXR is currently in active co-design, with people with lived experience, frontline practitioners and mental health specialists shaping the learning content, scenarios and emotional safety considerations.
Summary
Responding to someone who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts is one of the most challenging situations many professionals will encounter in their work. These conversations are complex, emotionally demanding and often take place with little opportunity to practise or reflect in advance.
SAFXR explores how immersive, scenario-based learning could help address this gap. By creating realistic XR experiences, the project aims to provide a safe space for professionals to rehearse responses, build confidence in safety-planning approaches and navigate uncertainty without real-world risk.
The project also recognises the impact this work can have on those providing support. Workforce mental health and resilience are central considerations, with the learning experience designed to encourage reflection rather than assessment.
Co-design sits at the heart of SAFXR. People with lived experience, alongside practitioners and mental health specialists, are shaping the content and emotional tone of the scenarios to ensure the learning feels authentic, respectful and grounded in real practice. Aligned with Scotland’s Creating Hope Together strategy and supported through Innovate UK funding, SAFXR aims to contribute to responsible and ethical approaches to suicide-prevention education.
Impact & value
Development of SAFXR began in July 2025 and the project is currently in its co-design phase.
So far, work has focused on understanding the real-world contexts in which suicide-prevention conversations take place, and how these can be represented safely and meaningfully in an immersive environment. Co-design sessions have brought together lived experience contributors, practitioners and researchers to explore what good, supportive learning should feel like — not just what it should teach.
This phase has included early scenario storyboarding, user-experience planning and careful consideration of emotional safety and trauma-informed design. Insights from research and practice are being used to guide decisions about narrative structure, pacing and interaction. At the same time, the partners are exploring how Care Reality’s FLO XR platform can best support these aims, ensuring that technical development remains led by learning, ethical and user needs.
Progress to date
The next stage of SAFXR will focus on moving from design into early testing.
Initial testing of prototype scenarios is planned for 2026, including activity within the University of Glasgow’s ARC XR Lab. This will help explore usability, emotional safety and how the learning experience is received by users.
Learning from this phase will inform further refinement of the scenarios and supporting materials. Subject to progress, wider evaluation across different sectors is anticipated as the project continues to develop.
Further updates will be shared as SAFXR progresses, with collaboration between partners and contributors remaining central to shaping the project’s direction.
Next steps
Partners
