From Crisis to Hope: A Path Forward for Workplace Suicide Prevention

September 10, 2025

Trigger warning: Contains references to suicide and self-harm.

One of the most distressing scenarios for an HR leader is learning that an employee is experiencing a severe mental health crisis and may not be able to keep themselves safe. When a member of your team is struggling with suicidal thoughts or behaviors, your top priority becomes supporting them in receiving the care they need to successfully manage the current crisis and prevent future ones.

Unless you’re familiar with the ins and outs of specialized mental health care, however, you will likely find yourself flooded with a number of questions: Where do we start? Who provides this level of specialized care? How do we vet them for quality? What if there’s a waitlist when this person needs help now? How do I support their manager through this? What can we do differently in the future to catch the warning signs earlier?

This is the moment when you, your organization, and your employee are most in need of specialized, dedicated support to navigate the complex healthcare landscape and connect your employee to the high-quality care they urgently need.

Building a safety net proactively

When an employee’s safety and well-being are on the line, hoping for the best is not enough. An effective workplace suicide prevention strategy requires a comprehensive approach including:

• Immediate access to high-quality, effective care
• A reliable path for accessing higher levels of care when needed
• Support for everyone involved, including the employee, their family, and you and your organization

Lyra takes the guesswork out of this process, providing access to the specialized care and support your employee and their family need.

Immediate access to evidence-based treatment

The treatment of choice for someone struggling with suicidal and self-harm behaviors is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT is a comprehensive treatment program that combines skills groups, individual therapy, and real-time skills coaching to provide your employees with the skills they need to manage overwhelming emotions, resist urges to harm themselves, navigate interpersonal relationships, and avert crises. With Lyra’s DBT program, members work with a team of expert DBT clinicians and have access to 24/7 skills coaching from trained professionals to assist them in applying new skills in their daily lives.

What sets Lyra’s DBT program apart is its accessibility. Whereas most comprehensive DBT programs have waitlists of three to six months, Lyra connects members to care in just days – ensuring that this life-saving treatment is available when it’s needed most. The Lyra DBT program is also more efficient, lasting four months instead of the standard six, thanks to Lyra’s between-session digital tools that reinforce skills practice throughout the week. Notably, the outcomes speak for themselves: 91% of members who complete the program demonstrate meaningful symptom improvement. This is the treatment you want your employees to receive if they are at risk of harming themselves.

Access to higher levels of care when needed

Although outpatient DBT can help many people through a crisis, some may need more intensive care to ensure their safety. Intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) and partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) can provide a helpful step-up in care to prevent hospitalization, or serve as a vital step-down to help someone safely transition back to their daily routine and outpatient care.

Finding a high-quality intensive program in the midst of a crisis can be a daunting task, however, especially if you are starting from scratch. Lyra has done the hard work ahead of time, building a robust network of 1,000 trusted facility partners so that we are ready to act immediately when members need more support.

Support for the support system

When someone is in crisis, the people around them can feel the weight too. If you are not a trained mental health provider, helping someone navigate a suicidal crisis can be overwhelming and frightening. Family members, managers, and HR leaders alike may struggle with how best to support an employee in crisis and help them traverse the complex and often confusing healthcare system. With Lyra, you don’t have to navigate this maze alone. We provide dedicated support and guidance not just for employees, but for the families and organizations supporting them.

Be ready when your team needs you the most

A mental health crisis is one of the most difficult challenges a workplace can face—not just for the individual, but for their manager, HR leader, and co-workers. With Lyra, you have a pre-built, high-quality safety net that reduces risk, controls costs, and provides a clear path forward for everyone involved.

The support you put in place today can help your employees recover from a crisis and move forward in their lives with a renewed sense of purpose and the ability to navigate crises more effectively in the future.