**Introduction** Prevention of suicide and self-harm in adolescents is an increasingly important issue globally, with evidence of increasing rates of both self-harm and suicide (1–5). In the prevention of suicide, many studies focus on the perspective of parents (6–8) or mental health care professionals (4). However, less attention has been paid to the perspective of (former) suicidal adolescents. In this study, suicidal adolescents includes adolescents with a history of suicidal ideation, suicide plans, suicide attempts or self-harm. Research regarding the needs of suicidal adolescents differs in design and methodology. To our knowledge, findings regarding their needs have not been assembled in a review. Therefore, it remains unclear what knowledge is available and what gaps there are in the knowledge base (10–13). Including the adolescent’s perspective in suicide prevention strategies is essential. For example, in the prevention of self-harm, adolescents (general population) often consider family, friends and school as more important sources of support than professionals and external organizations (14–16). Berg et al. (2017) studied the needs of (adult) suicidal persons with regard to safety-experiences during their hospitalization. In their review, they argued that connection, protection and personal control play vital roles in their safety-related experiences. Meeting these needs was essential for their recovery. Not fulfilling these needs could influence their suicidality negatively. Some patients described they did not only feel unsafe, but argued it could even trigger another suicide attempt (17). Even though Berg et al. (2017) focused on adults and the safety aspect only, it illustrates how crucial it is to include patients’ perspectives regarding care. This review aims to present the literature about what (former) suicidal adolescents believe can be done to help them to cope or to overcome with suicidality and prevent them from self-harming. Therefore, we aim to include the adolescent’s perspective by studying their needs, and make recommendations for prevention of suicide and self-harm in adolescents. **Methods** A scoping review will be performed according to the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews (18). A scoping review is a methodology to identify the available evidence, to clarify key concepts and to identify and analyse existing knowledge gaps (19). The design of this study will be based on the scoping review methods described by Arksey and O’Malley (2007) and refined by Levac et al. (2010)(20,21). The five stages described in this methodology are: (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant records, (3) selecting records, (4) abstracting the data and (5) collating, summarizing and reporting the results. *Stage 1: identifying the research question* The main research question which this review will address is: ‘What are the needs of suicidal adolescents according to their opinions?’ *Stage 2: identifying relevant records* Search strategy In order to develop the most effective search strategy, a librarian (CP) will be consulted to identify relevant keywords related to the three main concepts of the research question: (1) adolescents or youth; (2) self-harm and/or suicidal behavior (3) needs, wishes, demands. The search string will first be developed for Medline and once it is comprehensive and effective, it will be translated to the following other databases: Embase, Psycinfo, CINAHL, ERIC, Scopus, and Web Of Science. Records in Dutch and English will be included. In order to increase sensitivity, there will be no publication date and study type restrictions. All identified records from the identified literature will be uploaded to a software program called Rayyan. This is a web and mobile app that facilitates the screening procedure in conducting systematic reviews (22). Reference lists of relevant articles and reviews will be manually searched. *Stage 3: selecting records* The selection of relevant records will involve: (1) screening on title and abstract and (2) full-text review. In this study, adolescents are defined as young people between the ages of 10 and 24 years old because this category corresponds most closely to adolescent growth and their development to young adulthood, and understanding of this phase in life (23). To be included, articles must include adolescents who are or have been suicidal and/or engage(d) in self harm. The term ‘needs’ will be interpreted broadly and may refer to all areas of life, such as healthcare, school, personal relationships, family, etc. The title and abstract screening as well as the full-text review will be completed in Rayyan. Titles and abstracts of each article will be independently screened by two reviewers (ML and NvE). Conflicts during screening will be resolved by a third reviewer (DvB) who will review the title and abstract and/or the full text. In addition, full text articles will be independently screened by two researchers (ML and NvE), reasons for exclusion will be tracked and uncertainties will be discussed with a third researcher (DvB) and the other reviewers when needed. Records will be included if they describe the needs of suicidal adolescents according to their own opinion. Any type of study design (for example, descriptive, quasi-experimental) will be included. Discussion papers that do not report empirical research, commentaries and editorials will be excluded. The selection of records will be reported according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines (18). A PRISMA-ScR flow diagram of the systematic search and selection process will be generated. *Stage 4: abstracting data* The extracted data will include (but not be limited to): publication year, location, study design, research purpose, participant characteristics, research methods and key findings related to the needs of suicidal adolescents. The data extraction tool will be developed in Microsoft Excel by the first researcher (ML) and pre-tested by two other reviewers (NvE and DvB) to ensure that it captures all information accurately. The extraction tool may be revised as necessary during the data collection process. All changes will be tracked. Data abstraction will be independently completed by two reviewers (ML and NvE). Their abstracted data will be compared and discrepancies will be discussed with a third reviewer (DvB) and the other reviewers when needed in order to reach an agreed version. *Stage 5: collating, summarizing and reporting the results* The purpose of this scoping review is to map and synthesize existing evidence about the needs of suicidal adolescents, in order to provide adequate suicide prevention. A narrative summary will be completed to synthesize the data, including key findings as well as contextual information about the needs of suicidal adolescents. Thematic analysis methods will be used to facilitate the identification of common patterns in the data(24). From this process, key findings regarding the needs of suicidal adolescents will be summarized. Often, the methodological quality of included studies is often not assessed for scoping reviews (20). However, the research team decided, when possible, to use the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) (25), selecting the specific checklist associated with the methodology of each particular article.