---
title: "Crisis safety protocol · Inner Atlas"
description: "What Inner Atlas does when what someone writes suggests they may be at risk, and where to find help now."
url: "https://www.inneratlas.co.za/safety"
---

*Safety*

# Crisis safety protocol

**Effective date:** 4 October 2026

Inner Atlas is a journaling app, not a crisis service, and not therapy. Some of what people write is about being in danger. This page explains what the app does when that happens.

**If you are in danger now:** in the United States, call or text **988** (the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call **911**. In the United Kingdom, call Samaritans on **116 123** or **999**. In South Africa, call the SADAG Suicide Crisis Helpline on **0800 567 567** or **112** from a mobile phone. Anywhere else, [findahelpline.com](https://findahelpline.com/) lists free, confidential helplines in your country.

## 1. How the app notices risk

Alongside every reply, the app checks whether what you wrote may involve risk: thoughts of suicide, self-harm, harm to someone else, abuse or danger, or acute distress. When it might, a separate safety check reviews what you wrote, apart from the conversation. That check decides only how serious the moment seems and which kind of risk it is. It never writes a phone number, a service name or a link.

## 2. What the app does

- **Low concern:** a quiet note beneath the reply, with support services you can reach.
- **Elevated or acute concern:** a care screen comes in front of the conversation, with support services you can call or text in one tap. At acute concern, going back to journaling starts with a short grounding exercise, which you can choose to skip. Reaching a service is never held back by it.

The services come from a list we keep for each country, checked against each service's own website and re-checked every three months. The order on the list is decided in advance, not by the AI. For example, when someone writes about abuse, a domestic violence line comes before the police.

If your phone is in a different country from the one your account is set to, the app shows the services that work where you are first, because crisis numbers often only connect inside their own country.

## 3. What the app does not do

The app never contacts anyone for you. It does not call emergency services, and it does not tell anyone what you wrote. When you tap a service, your phone opens the call or message, and you decide whether to go ahead.

## 4. What we count

We count how many times the app showed support services, each day, by level of concern. The count holds nothing that could identify you: no account, no content, and nothing about what you wrote. Some US states ask us to report this number each year.