FirstSigns <firstsigns>
"The first place to turn to when signs of self-harm appear"
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 | FirstSigns on BBC Radio – Monday 16th Nov | 12 days ago | ||
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| Jeremy Vine will be talking to Wedge (from FirstSigns) and Jenifer (an NHS consultant nurse) about ‘assisted’ self-harm within hospitals, mental health units and long-term care establishments, whereby a person is ‘allowed’ to hurt themselves under certain circumstances, and provided with clean implements to do so. * Monday 16th November 2009, 1pm * BBC Radio 2 , Jeremy Vine SadnessWe blogged a little when we noticed that the newspapers were calling it ‘assisted’ self-harm which we feel is a confusing term. No one is suggesting that health-care professionals should help a person hurt themselves, rather, we are simply saying that health-care professionals must recognise that they cannot tell a person to ‘stop‘ hurting themselves without first supporting that person to develop and learn new ways of coping with distress. Self-injury is a valid coping mechanism, and when a person has nothing else to rely on, we should respect that the person has a right to hurt themselves, and that other people do not have a right to stop them. Other people’s care and concern should be expressed in positive support, not negative denial. Positive support includes helping a person move away from self-injurious behaviour over a period of time, learning new things to rely on, and working on the underlying issues. We must not over-simplify this complex issue; we must focus on the underlying cause of distress and not merely the act of self-injury as a person seeks relief and release. We shouldn’t just assume this is all about cutting either – self-harm is a wide topic, and self-injury can take the form of banging and other ‘easy to do’ behaviours, so it’s not right to focus on ‘giving people razor blades’ because that’s not the whole story here. Wedge will be saying that it’s not about being ‘allowed’ to hurt yourself, it’s about recognising that we shouldn’t tell people to ‘just stop’ before they’ve been given alternative ways of coping. It’s a complex subject; certainly people in care need help to move away from self-harm, but forbidding people to use self-injury isn’t the only way forward. No one is suggesting the need to hand out razor blades carte blanche. We are saying that, as a part of a written and agreed care plan with the patient, there may be times when a person hurts themselves, and that occurrence shouldn’t be punished or forbidden. No one is saying that self-injury should be an easy option, no on is saying that self-injury is the right choice; we’re saying that as a last resort, after discussion, after alternatives have been tried, after counselling, after time, after thought, after all the steps in a person’s care plan have been addressed, self-injury (and then self-care and med attention) may be a stage a person needs. The next stage would be emotional debrief, lessons learnt and counselling. As part of a structured care plan, created with the individual for the individual, self-injury (and the reduction of reliance upon it) has to be dealt with in a positive manner, not simply denied as if it doesn’t exist. Ingrained behaviour, habitual long-term behaviour cannot be changed on ‘Admissions Day’ – these things take time. It is wrong to dis-empower a vulnerable person and forbid them their release and relief before supporting them to make new choices. We can leave self-harm behind; it takes time and effort, but we can make new choices for ourselves – please help us make these choices, don’t make them for us. | ||||
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| Research, happiness, statistics and lies | 18 days ago | ||
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| What is it with researchers? Why is it that every study that comes out contradicts the previous one? One month coffee is good for the heart, the next it’s bad. One year mono-unsaturates are good for you, but these days we have to avoid ‘trans-fats’ – whatever they are. More people are staying in the UK for their holidays, but more people than ever are flying… Research research research – we need research – hard facts and data to interpret, to inform and change our behaviour. As a society, our Government, or employers, our health-care workers, need evidence to base their actions on. It makes perfect sense of course – we can’t take action based on whims – we need to know what we’re doing and why. We need to know what has the biggest impact for the buck, so we can spend money wisely and reap the best rewards. But whose statistics do we trust? Those skin-care adverts on the tele say that 73% of women tested agreed the cream made them appear youthful. Then you read the small print and you find that they tested 35 women. What’s 73% of 35? Hmm, so basically *some* women liked this product after we gave it to them for free for a month, and some others didn’t. It’s hardly relevant to the whole country is it, when they only ask a handful of selected people. At FirstSigns, we never claim to know how many people in the UK or in the world self-injure or self-harm. We’re asked for the stat a lot – as if knowing whether it’s 100,000 or 150,000 people will help us reach those people. At FirstSigns, we look for better ways to support our members and help the many thousands of people who visit our websites. So yes, we sometimes ask research questions, and yes, we get statistics from these. We learn a little more about self-injury, and a little more about our members, but we don’t go around claiming that answers from 1000 people represent the country. We know that there are no statistics that will help an individual in distress. This isn’t a numbers game; we’re in this because we know, from the inside, how lonely and despair-filled self-injury can be. So, is the UK happy or sad? With all the research going on all the time (and yes, 3rd year University Pyschology Students often want to study depression and self-injury) do we know if the UK is getting happier or sadder? Read the rest of this article at: http://blog.firstsigns.org.uk/2009/1... | ||||
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| Please buy a wristband in November | 21 days ago | ||
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| Self-Injury Awareness Day (SIAD) is the 1st of March, 2010. That means that we'll sell loads of SI Awareness wristbands and keyrings in February. Which is great! I mean, it's just fantastic to think so many people will be wearing our wristbands through March - it makes us proud of our members and supporters, and really helps our organisation's finances. As you know, we're a voluntary org and we're unfunded. Everything we do, we do out of consideration for you, our visitors, not because it's our job to, or because we get paid to. FirstSigns is run by people with personal experience of self-injury for people affected by self-injury. So as an unfunded organisation, designing and selling wristbands really helps us to pay for our website costs and our printing costs - everything that makes us exist if you see what I mean. So we'd like to invite you to buy an orange wristband from us in November to help us now. There's so much to do now. February and SIAD are just around the corner - we look forward to the increased interest in SI and in our services from people and from the media, but we need to prepare now, to make sure we're still running smoothly when SIAD comes around. We're asking for your help now - we know lots of people will help us in February, but we're asking for your help now. Please buy a wristband in November and help us survive and thrive in time for SIAD. You'll be welcome to buy our new keyrings in February  | ||||
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| FirstSigns calendar - we need your help | 25 days ago | ||
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| We are busy planning for Self Injury Awareness Day on 1st March 2010, and we have loads of great ideas that will help make SIAD 2010 our best ever. One of these is to produce a FirstSigns calendar, and we thought it would be great if some our members could get involved and help us with the pictures. So, we'd like to invite you to submit pictures of your artwork or photographs for possible inclusion in the calendar, our books and on our website. Don't worry if you're not artistic; we're not looking for perfection here. All we ask is that your pictures are positive and / or inspiring; after all, they'll be viewed for a whole month in people's homes and offices! If you're not into art or drawing, then maybe you'd like to take a photograph of something that makes you smile or that inspires you. It could be a tree, a favourite view, or even a pet! If you’re over 18 you are welcome to include yourself in the picture if you wish, but we are unable to publish pictures involving other people. Please email you pictures or images to Jules@FirstSigns.org.uk and include the name you would like your picture published under (either your first name or a nickname) and one short sentence describing what the picture is. Please ensure you send us the largest image your camera is able to take, as the ‘image quality’ needs to be high. This means the file you attach to your email will be quite large, so don’t be surprised if it takes a couple of minutes to send. We've got some great pics already submitted to our Confessions / Expressions wall, and you're welcome to upload your artwork there still – right now we're asking for your artwork and photographs to be emailed in. Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you. Wedge and Jules | ||||
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| Our blog has a new home | 118 days ago | ||
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| Here at FirstSigns (aka LifeSIGNS) we've been blogging now for six years. Blogspot has served us well during this time and we've accumulated several hundred posts, and several hundred readers. But times change and we've found that blogspot, while fun n easy, isn't really keeping up with FirstSigns as we're constantly evolving, growing and changing the world! It's just not professional enough for us now, and doesn't give us or our loyal members enough flexibility. So, we're moving! Our new blog can be found at blog.firstsigns.org.uk (no www) and we hope you'll agree it looks fantastic and has an easy address. It has some exciting new features including a choice of 'Themes', so you can each choose from one of four themes and have your blog looking how 'you' like it. It has a great many features and additions that are simply lacking from blogspot, and we're excited to be moving our blog forwards in this way. You'll still find all the usual features you're used to, including comments, RSS news-feed subscription, archive, and of course all our posts from blogspot have already been moved across. Wedge has worked really hard on designing our new blog and we hope you like it as much as we do. Maybe it will inspire some of you to want to write for us – our new blog has a great feature for guest posters  So, farewell blogspot, and hello to our shiny new blog. See you there. | ||||
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| Invitation to our Summer Meet-up in Leeds (UK) | 172 days ago | ||
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After holding our Meet-ups in London and Birmingham last year, we have decided to travel further north this year in order to keep things fair for our members. Accordingly we will this year be holding our summer meet-up in Leeds on Saturday 11 July 2009 and hope to meet as many of you as possible for a drink and a light-hearted chat. Our meet-ups have always been popular, giving people the opportunity to meet friends they have made on our message board and also to meet the people who keep our organisation going. Both Jules and I will be there, and hopefully one or two of our moderators as well. Please download your 'invitation' now from our website front page or blog – it gives you full details and will help you find us on the day You don’t have to be a member of our message board in order to attend – everyone who is a ‘member’ of FirstSigns in any way, either on the message board, our mailing list, our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, Bebo or MySpace groups, or indeed our Twitter followers, are all welcome to attend*. If you’d like to attend, please email Jules@FirstSigns.org.uk now to let us know you’ll be there. We look forward to seeing you and buying you a drink! Wedge and Jules | ||||
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| Awareness Wristbands and Keyrings now available | 301 days ago | ||
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| Judging by the number of queries we've had asking about wristbands and keyrings, I'm sure many of you will be just as excited as I am to hear that they are now in stock, and available to purchase! As so many of you wanted different combinations of wristbands and keyrings last year, we've made ordering easier this year (thanks to Wedge and his excellent webmaster skills), but if you still can't find what you're after then please email me - anything is possible We're only a month away from SIAD (Self-Injury Awareness Day) on 1st March, so what better time to buy a wristband or keyring (or both). As always, every penny we get goes straight back into helping us continue our work, and spread awareness throughout the year. We'll be blogging lots more about SIAD over the coming month, so if you're planning an event at your school / college / workplace and you'd like us to mention it, then please do contact me. Meanwhile, I look forward to the manic posting of wristbands and keyrings, as is usual for this time of year Jules@firstsigns.org.uk | ||||
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| Update on BBC Headroom Campaign | 321 days ago | ||
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| Friday, January 09, 2009 Melanie, Video Producer for the BBC has been touch with further details about the videos they are producing for the Headroom campaign. It would now seem that the video can be filmed by contributors themselves, in their own home and time, using a camera and training provided by the BBC. Alternatively, Melanie would go along and assist with filming if required. Please see below a briefing that Melanie has provided: Video Nation: Self Harm brief Video Nation has been commissioned to produce short films for the Headroom / Video Nation websites on the theme of Self Harm. Each film (video diary) should focus on the personal story of self harm that individuals are currently experiencing, or have experienced. The main aim for the Video Nation films is for the audience to be able to watch and empathise with others’ experiences, to relate to and understand that how they are feeling is experienced by many others, to be inspired and motivated by the contributors’ progress in dealing with their issues. Contributors: * In each film the subject should be encouraged to tell their personal story and experiences of Self Harm, and discuss their personal ‘triggers’. * The person should talk about how they are coping / have coped and steps they are taking / have taken to manage their problems. * The person should also talk about the support they have received /continue to receive from friends, family, colleagues, work place and educational institutions etc. * If there is a family group affected by a person’s self harm, that might also be appropriate to follow up as a story idea in the mix of films. * We would also like to find a young South-Asian woman to contribute in the mix of films too – to tie in with one of the themes. About BBC Headroom * A pan-BBC audience support and information campaign on the subject of mental health and well-being. * BBC Headroom launched in May 2008 and acts as an umbrella support resource for the wide variety of mental health and well-being related activities taking place across the BBC. The aim is to provide easy-to-access audience information and tackling stigma surrounding mental health and wellbeing. The films should: * be a maximum of 2 minutes in length * have a positive outcome (in terms of being on a journey, not just being at their lowest ebb). * cover a variety of areas within the topic of self harm. * talk about practical solutions for a problem; how the subject expresses their feelings and thoughts through creativity, artwork, taking exercise etc. * have a ‘sense of normality’, be something that many people can empathise with. * show a sense of progress in the situation Once again I would ask that anyone interested in taking part email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk as soon as possible. Thank you. | ||||
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| The BBC needs you! | 323 days ago | ||
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| Wednesday, January 07, 2009 Jav, from the BBC, contacted Wedge yesterday asking for our help in finding people to take part in the BBC Headroom campaign. As part of the ongoing campaign, Jav will be producing 5 short films focusing on self-harm. Each two minute clip will feature people sharing their experiences of how they have coped, overcome or stablilised self-harm – so they will be positive films. Having discussed the umbrella term of 'self-harm' with Jav, we have agreed that the films do not need to focus purely on self-injury, so people with personal experience of other forms of self-harm are welcome to volunteer (except for eating disorders because they are covered in another project). Jav is looking for a diverse range of people, so age, gender, location (UK), personal circumstances and background are irrelevant – anyone can volunteer for this (how refreshing is that?!) Here you can get an idea of some of the films that have been made so far. http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/fea... Jav will be travelling to the volunteers' homes, to film them in their everyday lives, over half a day. The finished films will only be used after the contributors have seen the films and confirmed their agreement for them to be aired. Anyone who is interested in volunteering for this project, or who has any further questions, please email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk This is a fantastic opportunity to appear in film on a high profile site, so I look forward to hearing from you | ||||
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| Happy New Year | 330 days ago | ||
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| Wednesday, December 31, 2008 They say that though the days are long, the years are short, and 2008 has certainly passed in a whirlwind. Wedge and I have worked incredibly hard this year, and it only feels like yesterday we were working 12 hours a day preparing for SIAD. Now it’s time to start thinking about SIAD 2009! I’ve never been much of a celebrator of new year; after all it’s just another day, and any new day can be a new year and a fresh start. There’s a lot of pressure to make resolutions, most of which have been broken by mid-January, so we would suggest not giving up anything for New Years, but instead pledging to make things a little nicer and easier for yourself every day. Things you may consider doing: ▪ Make time for yourself every single day. We all have busy lives, but even if you can only grab 15 minutes at the beginning of the day, and 15 minutes at the end – make that half an hour all about you. ▪ Get some fresh air every day; artificial light and heating are no substitute for natural UV rays. ▪ Think about the things you are putting into your body and consider how a change might improve your health and your mood. You don’t have to give anything up, but you can cut down on the not so good things and treat yourself with healthier alternatives. ▪ Take up a new hobby: try a different sport, learn a foreign language, enrol on a self-defence course, try some arts and crafts, rescue a homeless animal, do some voluntary work – the list is endless and there is something for every taste and pocket. ▪ Treat yourself occasionally. Buy a new book or a scented candle and tell yourself you deserve it, because you really do. ▪ Learn to say no without feeling guilty. ▪ Aim to do something that challenges you now and again. Whether it’s a trip out on your own or cooking a meal from scratch – it will increase your confidence and make you feel good about yourself. ▪ Notice the things around you and enjoy them. The world is a wonderful place and there is so much to see and enjoy if you take the time to really look. ▪ Value your loved ones. Take time to consider why you love them and remember to tell them occasionally. Just as importantly, allow yourself to be loved. Even if you aren’t feeling great about yourself, know that you are very important in the lives of others, and valued as person. ▪ Take control of your own actions. Take time to consider the consequences of your actions, and recognise your own power when it comes to making positive changes in your life. ▪ View life’s obstacles as challenges that can be overcome, but allow yourself to ask for help when you need it. Wedge and I wish you all the very best for a happy, healthy and self-empowered 2009. | ||||
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