A loved one with whom I live is currently in an inpatient mental health facility after an unsuccessful suicide attempt (they’re physically fine now, thanks for your concern). We’ve reached a mutual decision to secure medications and knives (to date, their ‘preferred’ methods of self-harm) prior to their discharge. I need help figuring out the best way to accomplish this with methods and materials available in the US market. We have several days, maybe a week, to figure this out.

I think what I’m in the market for is a small/medium size gun safe for the medications. I’m aware that no safe is 100% secure but I want something robust enough to where it can’t be raked, bypassed, or easily opened in a destructive manner.

I’m less sure what to do about the kitchen knives. I’m trying to figure out where I’m at on the tradeoff between convenience of obtaining them for cooking, vs keeping them inaccessible to a person in crisis. Am I looking for another (smaller) gun safe here?

I guess there’s no reason I couldn’t throw all these things in the same safe, I suppose I’m just picturing it being more convenient to have smaller safes (which can be hidden or otherwise concealed) instead of a larger one which stands out.

To anyone reading who’s been in this situation before… I’d love to hear any and all advice and experiences, for those comfortable sharing. I suspect there are things I could do to secure the home which I haven’t even considered yet. Thanks, and I love you for reading all this.