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In this episode we move from concept to practice, stepping into the four anchors at the centre of the STEPS model: State, Source, Span, and Scenario.

Through Ari’s story, we show how to:

• Locate where someone is right now (State).
• Trace what hurts most and what values are under threat (Source).
• Map how risk ebbs and flows, and how close someone has come to crossing the ideation–action divide (Span).
• Co-create what if / if…then… plans that make the future safer and more liveable (Scenario).

We also weave in the four types of risk—static, stable, dynamic, and fluid—and explain why warning signs trump risk factors, as well as the distinctions between acute, chronic, and acute-on-chronic presentations. Together, these elements shift our practice from prediction to prevention, from deficits to assets, and from TOP (The Only Professional) to TAP (Together As Partners).

You’ll learn:
• How to integrate State–Source–Span–Scenario into real conversations.
• Practical ways to keep the ideation–action divide open.
• How to embed risk awareness into collaborative, values-based safety planning.

Next time, we’ll step into the HOPE framework—grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy—to explore how values can be woven into daily conversations as anchors of safety and recovery.

Content note: This episode discusses suicide. If you are struggling right now, please reach out to local crisis supports or someone you trust.

Connect with Assoc Prof Manaan Kar Ray on Linkedin
Follow us on www.progress.guide

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Progress to Practice

This World Suicide Prevention Day 2025 Special episode explores the three critical mindset shifts that bring suicide prevention from concept to care.

First, the shift from prediction to prevention — moving beyond static categories of “low, medium, high” risk to dynamic, forward-focused conversations that anticipate what lies ahead.

Second, the shift from past to future — learning from history but ensuring time is spent preparing for the immediate days and weeks where safety can truly be shaped.

Third, the shift from deficits to assets — not only naming what is wrong, but reconnecting people to their strengths, values, and relationships that hold them in distress.

Together, these shifts are woven into a deeper transformation: from TOP (The Only Professional) to TAP (Together As Partners). Relational safety grows not through control, but through shared responsibility, dignity, and connection.

This special episode also reflects on Creating Hope Through Action — a new song released on 10 September 2025 to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. Inspired by the idea that hope lives in small, shared actions, the song invites us all to consider how we can nurture hope for ourselves and for others.

We close by setting the stage for the next episode, where we’ll explore the four guiding tasks of the STEPS model: Step, Source, Span, and Scenario — practical anchors for turning mindset into method, and hope into action.

Connect with Assoc Prof Manaan Kar Ray on Linkedin
Follow us on www.progress.guide

Would love to hear your thoughts...

A Song for World Suicide Prevention Day

Released on 10 September 2025 for World Suicide Prevention Day, this original song captures the heart of this year’s theme: Creating Hope Through Action.

Hope has been described by poets as the thing with feathers, fragile yet enduring. But hope is more than a feeling — it is something we create together through the choices we make, the questions we ask, and the care we offer one another.

This song is our tribute to those we have lost, to those who are struggling, and to those who continue to work each day to build safer, kinder communities. It reminds us that prevention is not about prediction, but about presence. That dignity lies not only in survival, but in reclaiming connection, meaning, and agency.

May this song be a reminder that hope is not abstract. It is actionable. And each of us, in our own ways, can take part in creating it.

Lyrics:

Creating Hope Through Action

Verse 1
We remember the names, the lives, the years,
Stories carried through silence and tears.
No label, no number can capture their song,
Their voices remind us we all belong.

Verse 2
Hope, Emily said, is a bird in the soul,
A feathered companion that sings and consoles.
But hope is not only a whisper or rhyme,
It lives in our actions, it grows over time.

Chorus
Hope is not waiting, it’s what we create,
In each small action, in love we demonstrate.
Together we carry the flame through the night,
Creating hope through action, in each other’s light.

Verse 3
The past is a teacher, but the future’s our thread,
Woven in moments, in words we have said.
Not just what is broken, but what still survives,
The ember of meaning that keeps us alive.

Bridge
From silence to speaking, from shadows to sight,
We find in each other the courage to fight.
Not one hand alone, but all hands combined,
A circle of safety, a thread redefined.

Chorus
Hope is not waiting, it’s what we create,
In each small action, in love we demonstrate.
Together we carry the flame through the night,
Creating hope through action, in each other’s light.

Outro
For the lives we’ve lost, for the lives we save,
Hope is the thread we choose to brave.

Final Chorus
Hope is not waiting, it’s what we create,
In each small action, in love we demonstrate.
Together we carry the flame through the night,
Creating hope through action, in each other’s light.

Connect with Assoc Prof Manaan Kar Ray on Linkedin
Follow us on www.progress.guide