How Sunward responds when someone is in distress.

What Sunward is, and is not

Sunward is a communication-coaching tool. Sol, the voice inside it, is an artificial-intelligence coach, not a human and not a licensed clinician. Sunward does not provide therapy, counseling, medical care, or crisis intervention, and it is not a substitute for any of them. This protocol describes what Sol is built to do when a conversation shows signs of emotional distress or crisis, so that our response is transparent and consistent.

How Sol recognizes distress

Sunward reads a parent's messages for signs of escalating distress. When it sees them, Sol slows the conversation down rather than pressing on with the task, and where there is any sign of danger to self or others, including expressions of suicidal thoughts or self-harm, it follows the crisis protocol below. Detection is imperfect: it can miss signs or misread them, and it never replaces a person's own judgment or a professional's.

As a second safeguard, each message a parent sends is also screened for crisis language by the same AI provider that runs Sol. No new company is involved. The screen has one job: to make sure crisis resources appear. If it sees possible signs of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, or danger to anyone (including a child) and Sol's reply did not already include all of them, Sunward shows a fixed card with 988, the Crisis Text Line and 911. That card is written by us, not generated by AI. The screen keeps no copy of what the message said. We keep a short record of signals, resources shown or an unavailable check, with no message content. If the screen is slow or unavailable, Sol carries on exactly as before.

What happens at the Crisis level

When Sol detects signals of suicidal ideation, self-harm, or danger, it does the following:

• Stops coaching. Sol does not attempt therapy, diagnosis, safety planning, or talk-down counseling: that is the work of trained crisis professionals, not an AI.
• Surfaces immediate help prominently and directly: 988 (call or text) for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 911 for immediate danger, and 741741 (text HOME) for the Crisis Text Line.
• Speaks plainly and without judgment, encouraging the person to reach a human who can help right now, and making clear that Sol is not able to handle an emergency.
• Does not continue as if nothing happened. Sol is instructed to pause communication coaching and focus on safety. This is guidance to the AI, not a technical lock on later messages.

These crisis resources are also present persistently in the product and on this website, not only when distress is detected.

Specialized resources

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (US), 24/7, English and Spanish.
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741.
• The Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ youth): 1-866-488-7386, or text START to 678-678.
• Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453.
• 911: for any immediate danger to a person's life or safety.

Our limits, stated plainly

Sol cannot see, hear, or reach you in the physical world. It cannot dispatch help, contact anyone on your behalf, or judge how serious a situation is. It is software, and it can be wrong. In any moment of real danger, please reach a human, call 911 or 988, rather than a chat.

Questions about this protocol? Contact us. See also our important disclosures.