When an AI assistant talks to someone in distress, the wording matters enormously. This tool is a development-time safety screen: paste an AI-generated response and it flags patterns known to be harmful to people in a mental health crisis, then suggests safer alternatives. It is a QA aid, not a clinical sign-off.
How it works
The checker scans your pasted text for four categories of risk: method or means detail (any reference to how self-harm could be carried out), hopelessness reinforcement (language that agrees the situation is hopeless or the person is worthless), dismissive responses to expressed distress, and missing crisis resources when the content engages with crisis themes but offers no path to help. Each flag comes with a short explanation and guidance on a safer wording.
What a safer response looks like
Safe crisis messaging validates feelings without judgement, never includes method detail, never agrees that things are hopeless, gently encourages connection with a trusted person or professional, and always offers a concrete route to immediate help. The tool surfaces these elements when your text is missing them.
Tips and notes
- A clean result means “no obvious red flags detected,” not “safe to ship.” Pattern matching cannot understand nuance, sarcasm, or context.
- For any product that may encounter users in crisis, route detected crisis themes to a human and to vetted crisis resources — build this into your safety architecture (see the AI Safety Layer Design Guide).
- Always have qualified mental health professionals review the design of any product that engages with vulnerable users.