Walkthrough: Build a crisis plan Available
The hardest moments are the worst time to figure out what to do. A crisis plan is a calm "do this now" card you write ahead of time, before the hard moment, so the steps are ready when your heart is pounding.
On this page
You write them once, when things are quiet. Then they wait for you. This walkthrough shows you how to build each one, where they show up when you need them, and how CareHaven keeps these sensitive plans private on a shared phone.
There are five kinds. You don't need all of them. Build the ones that fit your person, and skip the rest.
Where crisis plans live
Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans. Each plan you create belongs to the person currently selected — confirm the right name is showing in the name pill at the top center of the screen before you start.
Build a seizure plan
This is the one with the live timer. You set the rescue medication, the dose, and the minute-marks for when to give it and when to call emergency services. In the moment, the timer counts the seizure and tells you out loud (and buzzes) when to act, so you can stay with your child instead of watching the clock.
- Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans.
- Tap + to start a new plan and choose the seizure plan.
- Enter the rescue medication and dose.
- Set the minute-mark for when to give the rescue medication, and the minute-mark for when to call emergency services (911 in the US). Current guidance is to call once a seizure reaches 5 minutes, since after that it is less likely to stop on its own.
- Save the plan.
To run it during a seizure, open the seizure plan, turn your ringer up, and tap Start seizure timer. At your minute-marks the app speaks and buzzes "give rescue med," then "call emergency services." You never have to watch the clock.
Set a seizure-cluster alert (optional)
Some care teams set a rule for clusters — for example, "let me know if there are 3 or more seizures within 24 hours." If your neurologist or your own plan uses a rule like that, you can write it into the seizure plan and let CareHaven watch the count for you.
- Open the seizure plan (Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans, then tap your seizure plan).
- Find the Cluster alert section and turn it on.
- Set Alert when [number] or more seizures and within [number] hours to match the rule your care team uses.
- Save the plan.
It is off by default, and the numbers are entirely yours to set. CareHaven does not invent a cluster definition — there is no single medical standard for what counts as a cluster, so the app only ever uses the threshold you and your care team chose. When your logged seizures reach that count inside that window, a calm Care signal appears — in the Medical hub, and for the most urgent moments as a top-of-screen safety alert — so the pattern is not missed. A plain count of recent seizures also shows in the seizure list as everyday context; it is never treated as an alarm unless you turn this on. See Safety & crisis plans for how Care signals and safety alerts work. Available
For step-by-step practice with the timer itself, see Log a seizure with the timer. For the warning signs worth knowing, see Medical.
Build an "if they go missing" plan
For wandering. This plan gathers what a searcher needs in the first frantic minutes.
- Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans, then tap + to start a new plan.
- Choose If they go missing.
- Fill in what they look like.
- Note where they tend to head. Water first is the standard prompt, because many children who wander are drawn to it.
- Add the calming words that work for your person.
- Add who to call.
- Save the plan.
Build a calm-down plan
For meltdowns, before they escalate. You capture what you already know so anyone with the phone can follow it.
- Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans, then tap + to start a new plan.
- Choose Calm-down plan.
- Write the early signs you watch for.
- Write what helps.
- Write what makes it worse.
- Save the plan.
Build a safety plan
For the hardest moments. This one walks through six ordered steps to get through a crisis. The six headings come pre-filled, so you only fill in what fits your situation.
- Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans, then tap + to start a new plan.
- Choose Safety plan.
- Work through the six steps in order, filling in each one.
- Save the plan.
If a moment ever feels beyond what a plan can hold, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is one tap away from the app's emergency screen.
Build a crisis card
For the phone call you may have to make. The crisis card holds exactly what to tell a crisis line or a dispatcher, with the right specifics, so you are not searching for words under pressure.
- Tap Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans, then tap + to start a new plan.
- Choose Crisis card.
- Write what you would need to tell a crisis line or dispatcher.
- Save the plan.
Where your plans show up when you need them
You will always find your plans inside the app, two ways:
- Main Menu → Safety → Crisis plans — your full list, ready to open.
- Universal Search — pull down on the Home screen and search. Everyday words work, including the plan kind or terms like "wandering," "seizure plan," "rescue med," or "safety plan." See Search & Ask CareHaven.
CareHaven can also surface a plan on its own. When your recent regulation check-ins have been running tense or in crisis, a gentle note on the Home screen points you straight to your saved calm-down plan, one tap away, so the steps are there before you have to go looking.
In an emergency right now? Tap the menu icon (three lines, top left) → SOS — Emergency. That screen has your emergency contacts, the Care Card, and the Fatal Five list, all in one place.
The Safety hub can be turned on or off per person. If you don't see a Safety entry in your Main Menu, tap Main Menu, scroll to the bottom, tap Edit hubs, and turn Safety on.
A privacy note for shared phones
Crisis plans are kept out of the iPhone's own Home Screen search (Spotlight). If someone borrows your phone or glances at it, the existence of a sensitive crisis or psychiatric plan never shows up in the system-wide search.
The plans are not hidden from you — they are always inside the app, in the Safety hub and in the app's own search, behind your app lock. They simply do not leak into the phone-wide search corpus. The Letter of Intent and the Health & Communication Passport are kept private the same way.
For more on how CareHaven protects sensitive information, see Privacy & security (in depth).
A few things to know
- These plans are reminders and your own preparation, not medical advice and not a diagnosis. The minute-marks and steps reflect what you and your care team have decided.
- Build them when things are calm. There is no time to write a plan during the emergency it is meant for.
- A live activity on the Lock Screen, an Apple Watch version, and Siri shortcuts for crisis plans are an explicit fast-follow. Coming soon Today, the in-app seizure timer is what runs the live countdown.